Standard Lemma guide
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
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.
noun
The state of lacking meaning; the quality of being meaningless.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
Synonyms: pointlessness, purposelessness, uselessness
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Anything that is meaningless.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, usually
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
the quality of having no value or significance
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: meaningfulness
Broader terms: insignificance
Narrower terms: inanity, senselessness, mindlessness, vacuity, pointlessness, purposelessness, aimlessness
noun
a message that seems to convey no meaning
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: nonsense, bunk, nonsensicality, hokum
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: message, content, subject matter, substance
Narrower terms: absurdity, absurdness, ridiculousness, amphigory, nonsense verse, balderdash, fiddle-faddle, piffle, buzzword, cant, cobblers, crock, fa la, fal la, gibberish, gibber, incoherence, incoherency, unintelligibility, jabberwocky, mummery, flummery, palaver, hot air, empty words, empty talk, rhetoric, rigmarole, rigamarole, shmegegge, schmegegge, stuff, stuff and nonsense, hooey, poppycock, baloney, boloney, bilgewater, bosh, drool, humbug, taradiddle, tarradiddle, tommyrot, tosh, twaddle
History
Etymology tree English meaningless Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English meaninglessness From meaningless + -ness.
Across languages
19 source translations are retained for this English entry.
