adj
Meaning 1
Nonsensical.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
nonsense
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.
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Received-Pronunciation: /ˈnɒn.səns/
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Canada, General-American: /ˈnɑn.sɛns/
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Australian: /ˈnɔn.səns/
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rhymes with -ɒnsɛns
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rhymes with -ɒnsəns
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CMU ARPABET: N AA1 N S EH0 N S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adj
Meaning 2
Resulting from the substitution of a nucleotide in a sense codon, causing it to become a stop codon (not coding for an amino-acid).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: biochemistry, biology, chemistry, microbiology, natural-sciences, physical-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
intj
Meaning 3
An emphatic rejection of something one has just heard and does not believe or agree with.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
Letters or words, in writing or speech, that have no meaning or pattern or seem to have no meaning.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
Examples
- After my father had a stroke, every time he tried to talk, it sounded like nonsense.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
An untrue statement.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
That which is silly, illogical and lacks any meaning, reason or value; that which does not make sense.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 7
Something foolish.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 8
A type of poetry that contains strange or surreal ideas, as, for example, that written by Edward Lear.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
Topics: literature, media, publishing
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 9
A damaged DNA sequence whose products are not biologically active, that is, that does nothing.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
Topics: biology, natural-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 10
To make nonsense of;
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 11
To attempt to dismiss as nonsense; to ignore or belittle the significance of something; to render unimportant or puny.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: belittle, dismiss, pooh-pooh, rubbish
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 12
To joke around, to waste time
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 13
ornamental objects of no great value
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: folderal, falderol, frill, gimcrackery, gimcrack, trumpery
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: decoration, ornament, ornamentation
noun
Meaning 14
a message that seems to convey no meaning
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: bunk, nonsensicality, meaninglessness, 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
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Germanic *ne Proto-Indo-European *ís? Proto-Indo-European *h1óynos Proto-Germanic *ainaz Proto-Germanic *nainaz Proto-West Germanic *nain Old English nān Middle English non ▲ Old English nān Old English nān- Middle English non- English non- Proto-Indo-European *sent-der. Proto-Italic *sentiō Latin sentiō Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Italic *-tus Latin -tus Latin sēnsusbor. Proto-Germanic *sinnaz Frankish *sinnbor. Vulgar Latin *sennus Old French sensbor. Middle English sense English sense English nonsense From non- (“no, none, lack of”) + sense, from c. 1610. Compare the semantically similar West Frisian ûnsin (“nonsense”), Dutch onzin (“nonsense”), German Unsinn (“nonsense”), English unsense (“nonsense”).
Across languages
Translations
301 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Chinese Mandarin: 無義 /无义 (wúyì) — resulting from the substitution of a nucleotide in a sense codon, causing it to become a stop codon
- French: non-sens — resulting from the substitution of a nucleotide in a sense codon, causing it to become a stop codon
- Italian: senza senso — resulting from the substitution of a nucleotide in a sense codon, causing it to become a stop codon
- Portuguese: sem sentido — resulting from the substitution of a nucleotide in a sense codon, causing it to become a stop codon
- Spanish: sin sentido — resulting from the substitution of a nucleotide in a sense codon, causing it to become a stop codon
- Bulgarian: глупости (gluposti) — emphatic rejection
- Dutch: onzin — emphatic rejection
- Dutch: lariekoek — emphatic rejection
- Esperanto: dirlididi — emphatic rejection
- French: n'importe quoi ! — emphatic rejection
- German: papperlapapp — emphatic rejection
- Hungarian: lárifári! — emphatic rejection
- Hungarian: badarság! — emphatic rejection
- Hungarian: ostobaság! — emphatic rejection
- Hungarian: zagyvaság! — emphatic rejection
- Hungarian: képtelenség! — emphatic rejection
- Hungarian: hiszi a piszi! — emphatic rejection
- Latin: nugae! — emphatic rejection
- Latin: gerrae! — emphatic rejection
- Spanish: tonterías — emphatic rejection
- Spanish: tonteras — emphatic rejection
- Spanish: que tontería / tontera — emphatic rejection
- Albanian: ádra — meaningless words
- Albanian: dokrra — meaningless words
- Albanian: gjepura — meaningless words
- Albanian: palidhje — meaningless words
- Arabic: هُرَاء (hurāʔ) — meaningless words
- Arabic: لَغْو (laḡw) — meaningless words
- Armenian: անհեթեթություն (anhetʻetʻutʻyun) — meaningless words
- Armenian: աբսուրդ (absurd) — meaningless words
- Azerbaijani: çərən-pərən — meaningless words
- Azerbaijani: tartan-partan — meaningless words
- Azerbaijani: cəfəngiyat — meaningless words
- Belarusian: но́нсэнс (nónsens) — meaningless words
- Belarusian: бяссэ́нсіца (bjassénsica) — meaningless words
- Belarusian: абсу́рд (absúrd) — meaningless words
- Belarusian: бязглу́здзіца (bjazhlúzdzica) — meaningless words
- Bulgarian: безсмислица (bezsmislica) — meaningless words
- Catalan: bajanada — meaningless words
- Catalan: bestiesa — meaningless words
- Catalan: disbarat — meaningless words
- Catalan: estirabot — meaningless words
- Chinese Mandarin: 廢話 /废话 (fèihuà) — meaningless words
- Chinese Mandarin: 胡說 /胡说 (húshuō) — meaningless words
- Chinese Mandarin: 胡言 (húyán) — meaningless words
- Chinese Mandarin: 狗屁 (gǒupì) — meaningless words
- Cornish: flows — meaningless words
- Czech: nesmysl — meaningless words
- Danish: nonsens — meaningless words
- Danish: vrøvl — meaningless words
- Danish: sludder — meaningless words
- Dutch: nonsens — meaningless words
- Dutch: onzin — meaningless words
- Dutch: flauwekul — meaningless words
- Esperanto: sensencaĵo — meaningless words
- Esperanto: absurdaĵo — meaningless words
- Estonian: jamps — meaningless words
- Faroese: tvætl — meaningless words
- Faroese: møsn — meaningless words
- Finnish: hölynpöly — meaningless words
- Finnish: siansaksa — meaningless words
- French: bêtise — meaningless words
- French: absurdité — meaningless words
- Galician: lastrada — meaningless words
- Galician: arnada — meaningless words
- Galician: falcatrúa — meaningless words
- Galician: patochada — meaningless words
- Galician: doudice — meaningless words
- Galician: norrada — meaningless words
- Georgian: უაზრო (uazro) — meaningless words
- Georgian: უაზრობა (uazroba) — meaningless words
- Georgian: სისულელე (sisulele) — meaningless words
- Georgian: ნონსენსი (nonsensi) — meaningless words
- Georgian: აბდაუბდა (abdaubda) — meaningless words
- German: Blödsinn — meaningless words
- German: Nonsens — meaningless words
- German: Quatsch — meaningless words
- German: Unsinn — meaningless words
- German: Tüddelkram — meaningless words
- Greek: βλακείες (vlakeíes) — meaningless words
- Greek: ανοησίες (anoïsíes) — meaningless words
- Ancient Greek: φλυαρία (phluaría) — meaningless words
- Hebrew: שטויות (shtuyot) — meaningless words
- Hebrew: חנטריש (hantarish) — meaningless words
- Hindi: बकवास (bakvās) — meaningless words
- Hungarian: halandzsa — meaningless words
- Hungarian: zagyvaság — meaningless words
- Icelandic: rugl — meaningless words
- Icelandic: bull — meaningless words
- Indonesian: omong kosong — meaningless words
- Indonesian: nonsens — meaningless words
- Irish: amaidí — meaningless words
- Irish: áiféis — meaningless words
- Irish: seafóid — meaningless words
- Irish: brilléis — meaningless words
- Italian: sciocchezza — meaningless words
- Italian: senza senso — meaningless words
- Italian: priva di significato — meaningless words
- Italian: ridicolaggine — meaningless words
- Italian: a vanvera — meaningless words
- Italian: idiozia — meaningless words
- Italian: assurdità — meaningless words
- Italian: cavolata — meaningless words
- Italian: corbelleria — meaningless words
- Italian: stupidaggine — meaningless words
- Italian: cazzata — meaningless words
- Italian: fesseria — meaningless words
- Italian: coglionata — meaningless words
- Italian: minchiata — meaningless words
- Japanese: 無意味 (muimi) — meaningless words
- Japanese: ナンセンス (nansensu) — meaningless words
- Japanese: 馬鹿げた事 (bakageta koto) — meaningless words
- Kazakh: сандырақ (sandyraq) — meaningless words
- Kazakh: шатпақ (şatpaq) — meaningless words
- Khmer: អំពើភ្លីភ្លើ (ɑmpǝǝ plii-pləə) — meaningless words
- Khmer: សំដីរហាច (sɑmdəy rɔhaac) — meaningless words
- Korean: 무의미 (muuimi) — meaningless words
- Korean: 어리석은 소리 (eoriseogeun sori) — meaningless words
- Korean: 개소리 (gaesori) — meaningless words
- Korean: 헛소리 (heotsori) — meaningless words
- Korean: 난센스 (nansenseu) — meaningless words
- Central Kurdish: قسەی ھیچوپوچ (qsey hîçupuç) — meaningless words
- Latin: nūgae — meaningless words
- Latin: gerrae — meaningless words
- Latin: muscerdae — meaningless words
- Macedonian: бесми́слица (besmíslica) — meaningless words
- Macedonian: глу́пост (glúpost) — meaningless words
- Malayalam: അസംബന്ധം (asambandhaṁ) — meaningless words
- Manchu: ᡶᡳᠶᠣᡴᠣᠨ (fiyokon) — meaningless words
- Māori: kutukutuahi — meaningless words
- Māori: ngutungutuahi — meaningless words
- Māori: kohe — meaningless words
- Māori: kūrapa — meaningless words
- Norwegian Bokmål: snikksnakk — meaningless words
- Norwegian Bokmål: vrøvl — meaningless words
- Norwegian Bokmål: tullprat — meaningless words
- Norwegian Bokmål: nonsens — meaningless words
- Norwegian Bokmål: vås — meaningless words
- Persian: بیمعنی (bi-ma'ni) — meaningless words
- Persian: چرند (čarand) — meaningless words
- Persian: یاوه (yâve) — meaningless words
- Persian: مهمل (mohmal) — meaningless words
- Persian: چرت (čert) — meaningless words
- Polish: nonsens — meaningless words
- Polish: niedorzeczność — meaningless words
- Polish: absurd — meaningless words
- Polish: bezsens — meaningless words
- Polish: bzdura — meaningless words
- Polish: androny — meaningless words
- Polish: bajdura — meaningless words
- Portuguese: besteira — meaningless words
- Portuguese: bobagem — meaningless words
- Portuguese: burrice — meaningless words
- Portuguese: disparate — meaningless words
- Romanian: nonsens — meaningless words
- Romanian: absurditate — meaningless words
- Romanian: nonsensuri — meaningless words
- Russian: вздор (vzdor) — meaningless words
- Russian: ерунда́ (jerundá) — meaningless words
- Russian: но́нсенс (nónsɛns) — meaningless words
- Russian: бессмы́слица (bessmýslica) — meaningless words
- Russian: ахине́я (axinéja) — meaningless words
- Russian: абсу́рд (absúrd) — meaningless words
- Russian: околе́сица (okolésica) — meaningless words
- Russian: чепуха́ (čepuxá) — meaningless words
- Scottish Gaelic: sgudal — meaningless words
- Scottish Gaelic: amaideas — meaningless words
- Serbo-Croatian: bèsmislica — meaningless words
- Serbo-Croatian: glúpōst — meaningless words
- Slovak: nezmysel — meaningless words
- Spanish: disparate — meaningless words
- Spanish: parida — meaningless words
- Spanish: pamplina — meaningless words
- Spanish: pamema — meaningless words
- Spanish: sinsentido — meaningless words
- Spanish: despropósito — meaningless words
- Spanish: contrasentido — meaningless words
- Spanish: desbarro — meaningless words
- Spanish: estólido — meaningless words
- Spanish: gaita — meaningless words
- Spanish: dislate — meaningless words
- Swahili: upuuzi — meaningless words
- Swedish: nonsens — meaningless words
- Swedish: strunt — meaningless words
- Tagalog: sagimuymoy — meaningless words
- Tajik: ҳарза (harza) — meaningless words
- Tatar: сафсата (safsata) — meaningless words
- Thai: ความเพ้อเจ้อ (kwaam-pə́ə-jə̂ə) — meaningless words
- Thai: การเพ้อเจ้อ (gaan-pə́ə-jə̂ə) — meaningless words
- Tibetan: ཆོ་མེད (cho med) — meaningless words
- Tibetan: བྱབ་མེད (byab med) — meaningless words
- Tibetan: བྱབ་ཆུང (byab chung) — meaningless words
- Turkish: saçmalık — meaningless words
- Ottoman Turkish: صاچمه (saçma) — meaningless words
- Ukrainian: дурни́ця (durnýcja) — meaningless words
- Ukrainian: нісені́тниця (nisenítnycja) — meaningless words
- Ukrainian: безглу́здя (bezhlúzdja) — meaningless words
- Ukrainian: абсу́рд (absúrd) — meaningless words
- Ukrainian: но́нсенс (nónsens) — meaningless words
- Urdu: بکواس (bakvās) — meaningless words
- Welsh: lol — meaningless words
- Catalan: despropòsit — untrue statement
- Chinese Mandarin: 廢話 /废话 (fèihuà) — untrue statement
- Chinese Mandarin: 胡說 /胡说 (húshuō) — untrue statement
- Chinese Mandarin: 胡言 (húyán) — untrue statement
- Chinese Mandarin: 狗屁 (gǒupì) — untrue statement
- Cornish: flows — untrue statement
- Czech: nesmysl — untrue statement
- Danish: nonsens — untrue statement
- Esperanto: sensencaĵo — untrue statement
- Faroese: tvætl — untrue statement
- Finnish: hölynpöly — untrue statement
- Finnish: valhe — untrue statement
- Finnish: vale — untrue statement
- Finnish: puppu — untrue statement
- Finnish: pajunköysi — untrue statement
- Finnish: palturi — untrue statement
- Finnish: roska — untrue statement
- Finnish: roskapuhe — untrue statement
- Finnish: lööperi — untrue statement
- Finnish: potaska — untrue statement
- Finnish: pöty — untrue statement
- Finnish: puuta heinää — untrue statement
- French: sottise (s) — untrue statement
- French: n'importe quoi — untrue statement
- French: connerie — untrue statement
- Galician: lerdez — untrue statement
- Galician: secatura — untrue statement
- Galician: babosada — untrue statement
- Galician: gofeiza — untrue statement
- Galician: asneira — untrue statement
- German: Nonsens — untrue statement
- German: Unsinn — untrue statement
- Hungarian: képtelenség — untrue statement
- Hungarian: nonszensz — untrue statement
- Hungarian: ostobaság — untrue statement
- Hungarian: badarság — untrue statement
- Hungarian: szamárság — untrue statement
- Italian: balla — untrue statement
- Italian: fandonia — untrue statement
- Italian: scemenza — untrue statement
- Italian: fola — untrue statement
- Italian: baggianata — untrue statement
- Japanese: でたらめ (detarame) — untrue statement
- Kabuverdianu: asnera — untrue statement
- Macedonian: глу́пост (glúpost) — untrue statement
- Malayalam: അസംബന്ധം (asambandhaṁ) — untrue statement
- Māori: rūpahu — untrue statement
- Portuguese: besteira — untrue statement
- Portuguese: bobagem — untrue statement
- Portuguese: burrice — untrue statement
- Romanian: nerozie — untrue statement
- Romanian: nerozii — untrue statement
- Romanian: prostie — untrue statement
- Russian: вздор (vzdor) — untrue statement
- Russian: ерунда́ (jerundá) — untrue statement
- Russian: но́нсенс (nónsens) — untrue statement
- Russian: бессмы́слица (bessmýslica) — untrue statement
- Russian: ахине́я (axinéja) — untrue statement
- Scottish Gaelic: sgudal — untrue statement
- Scottish Gaelic: amaideas — untrue statement
- Serbo-Croatian: nesmisao — untrue statement
- Serbo-Croatian: budaláština — untrue statement
- Serbo-Croatian: nèistina — untrue statement
- Spanish: bulo — untrue statement
- Spanish: trola — untrue statement
- Spanish: paparrucha — untrue statement
- Spanish: infundio — untrue statement
- Swedish: nonsens — untrue statement
- Tatar: сафсата (safsata) — untrue statement
- Turkish: saçmalık — untrue statement
- Turkish: palavra — untrue statement
- Welsh: lol — untrue statement
- Georgian: სისულელე (sisulele) — something foolish
- Georgian: უგუნურება (ugunureba) — something foolish
- Georgian: უაზრობა (uazroba) — something foolish
- German: Unfug — something foolish
- Irish: bundún — something foolish
- Spanish: chorrada — something foolish
- Spanish: majadería — something foolish
- Spanish: tontera — something foolish
- Spanish: bobada — something foolish
- Spanish: sandez — something foolish
- Spanish: tontería — something foolish
- Spanish: tontada — something foolish
- Spanish: tontuna — something foolish
- Spanish: gilipollez — something foolish
- Spanish: bobera — something foolish
- Spanish: necedad — something foolish
- Tibetan: ཆོ་མེད (cho med) — something foolish
- Tibetan: བྱབ་མེད (byab med) — something foolish
- Tibetan: བྱབ་ཆུང (byab chung) — something foolish
- Czech: nonsens — type of poetry
- Finnish: nonsense — type of poetry
- Finnish: nonsense-runous — type of poetry
- Hebrew: איגיון ('igayon) — type of poetry
- Hungarian: nonszensz — type of poetry
- Portuguese: nonsense — type of poetry
- Finnish: nonsense-jakso — damaged DNA sequence
- French: non-sens — damaged DNA sequence
- Portuguese: sem sentido — damaged DNA sequence
Real reading context