Standard Lemma guide

lackluster

adj · noun · 7 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈlæklʌstə/
  • British, Southern, Standard: /ˈlaklʌstə/
  • Northern-England: /ˈlaklʊstə/
  • Scotland: /ˈlaklʌstəɾ/
  • Canada, General-American: /ˈlæklʌstɚ/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australian: /ˈlæklɐstə/
  • New-Zealand: /ˈlɛklɐstə/
  • CMU ARPABET: L AE1 K L AH2 S T ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Lacking brilliance or intelligence.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: simple, thick, addlebrained, addlepated, airheaded, bee-brained, beef-witted, beefheaded, beetle-headed, birdbrained, blockheaded, Boeotian, boneheaded, boofheaded, braindead, brainless, bubbleheaded, buffle-headed, bullet-headed, cerebrally challenged, childish, chowderheaded, chuckleheaded, crackbrained, cretinous, daft, dense, dented, dim-bulb, dim-headed, dim-witted, dim, doltish, dopey, dozy, drowsy, dull-headed, dull-minded, dull-witted, dull, dumber than a box of rocks, dumb, dunderheaded, empty-headed, fatheaded, feeble-minded, flea-brained, foolish, fuzzy-headed, fuzzy-minded, goofy, half-brained, half-witted, hammer-headed, idiotic, ignorant, imbecilic, inane, insipid, intellectually challenged, knuckleheaded, lamebrained, lowbrow, lumpish, lunkheaded, mentally challenged, mentally retarded, mindless, monosynaptic, moronic, muttonheaded, nitwitted, numbskulled, oafish, obtuse, peabrained, pratty, pudding-headed, puerile, purblind, quarter-witted, retarded, ridiculous, rockheaded, sharp as a bowling ball, sheep-headed, silly, slow, slow on the uptake, slow-witted, smooth-brained, stolid, stupid, thick-skulled, thickheaded, thickwitted, unapprehensive, unclever, uninformed, unintelligent, unsmart, vacant, vacuous, witless, wooden-headed, wool-headed, woolly-headed, woolly-minded, dumb as a bag of hammers, dumb as a box of rocks, dumb as a doorknob, dumb as an ox, dumb as a post, dumb as a sack of hammers, dumb as dirt, dumber than a rock, not the sharpest crayon in the box, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, not the sharpest tool in the shed, thick as a brick, thick as a plank, thick as champ, thick as mince, thick as two short planks, thick as a whale omelette, ass-brained, fuckwitted, shit-for-brains, thick as pig shit

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Having no shine or luster; dull.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: faint, wan, bland, colourless, dim, dingy, dull, lackluster, leaden, muddy, sad, sober, uncolorful, unholiday

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, figuratively

Examples

  • The actor gave a lackluster performance in his latest film.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bloodless, tedious, middling, pedestrian, banal, basic, beat, blah, commonplace, bland, boring, cold, colourless, corny, drab, stuffy, dreich, drowsy, dull, dull as dishwater, flat, heavy going, ho-hum, humdrum, insipid, lackluster, lame, languid, lifeless, longsome, monotonous, mundane, no fun at parties, plain, plodding, prosaic, prosy, pedantic, static, straightforward, snoozeworthy, soporific, uncool, wan, weaksauce, wooden, uninteresting, stodgy, vapid, vanilla, average, comme ci comme ça, crappy, decent, indifferent, meh, mediocre, mid, no great shakes, nothing to write home about, not worth writing home about, OK, okayish, ordinary, unexceptional, uninspiring, shitty, so-so, tolerable, whatever

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Lack of brightness or points of interest.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

A person or thing of no particular brilliance or intelligence.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, countable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

adjective satellite

Meaning 6

lacking luster or shine

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • staring with lackluster eyes
  • lusterless hair

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: lacklustre, lusterless, lustreless

Antonyms: none provided

7

adjective satellite

Meaning 7

lacking brilliance or vitality

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a dull lackluster life
  • a lusterless performance

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: lacklustre, lusterless, lustreless

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English lack English lust Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English luster English lackluster From lack + luster.

Across languages

Translations

54 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: помътнял (pomǎtnjal) — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Catalan: deslluït — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Czech: matný — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Dutch: dof — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Finnish: kiilloton — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Finnish: samea — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • French: terne — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • German: matt — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • German: glanzlos — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • German: farblos — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • German: lustlos — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Greek: μουντός (mountós) — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Italian: pallido — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Italian: spento — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Latvian: blāvs — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Latvian: nespodrs — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Polish: bezbarwny — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Portuguese: desbotado — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Romanian: tern — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Spanish: mate — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Spanish: pálido — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Swedish: matt — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Swedish: glanslös — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Turkish: mat — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Turkish: donuk — having no shine or lustre; dull
  • Catalan: fat — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Catalan: deslluït — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Czech: mdlý — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Czech: nevýrazný — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Czech: nezajímavý — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Dutch: middelmatig — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Finnish: lattea — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Finnish: mitäänsanomaton — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • French: quelconque — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • German: mittelmäßig — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • German: langweilig — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • German: müde — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Greek: μουντός (mountós) — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Māori: haumate — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Māori: memeha — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Māori: mehameha — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Māori: hihikokore — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Polish: bezbarwny — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Portuguese: mortiço — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Spanish: mediocre — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Spanish: cansado — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Spanish: aburrido — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Spanish: deslucido — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Turkish: alelade — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Turkish: sıradan — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Turkish: vasat — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Turkish: cılız — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Turkish: ölgün — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality
  • Turkish: cansız — not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality