Standard Lemma guide

nothingburger

adj · noun · 4 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: /ˈnʌθɪŋbɜːɡə/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈnʌθɪŋˌbɝɡɚ/

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of less importance than its treatment suggests; insignificant, unimportant; also, bland or unremarkable in appearance or impact.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal, not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: base, contemptible, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, foolish, for the birds, futile, frivolous, idle, ignorable, immaterial, inconsequential, inconsiderable, indifferent, insignificant, like a fart in a windstorm, meager, mean, minor, miserable, negligible, nothingburger, nondescript, null, paltry, petty, picayune, picayunish, piddling, piddly, pissant, pissass, piteous, pitiful, pointless, silly, simple, slight, ticky-tacky, tin-pot, trifling, trivial, two-bit, unimportant, unweighty, vain, worthless, wretched

Antonyms: remarkable, significant, big, central, consequential, critical, crucial, epochful, essential, extraordinary, fateful, fatefraught, fatesome, heavy, pivotal, high on the totem pole, historic, innegligible, key, life-or-death, meaningful, necessary, noted, noticeable, observable, outstanding, paramount, pertinent, relevant, salient, unignorable, valuable, vital, weighty

2

noun

Meaning 2

An unimportant person; a nobody, a nonentity.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: absolute zero, also-ran, chopped liver, cipher, crumb, Joe Nobody, little guy, minnow, nebbish, nobody, no one, nothing, nothingburger, nonentity, picayune, pip-squeak, pleb, peon, prole, puny, quidam, rinky-dink, shrimp, wankstain, zero, zilch

Antonyms: baron, big cheese, big enchilada, big gun, big kahuna, big man, big name, big noise, big shot, bigwig, big wheel, boss, grand poobah, head honcho, heavy hitter, heavyweight, high muckamuck, high muckety-muck, king of all one surveys, king of the castle, king of the hill, kingpin, macher, mayor, muckamuck, muckety muck, mugwump, numero uno, panjandrum, poobah, rooster, somebody, top banana, top boy, top cat, top dog, top gun, very important person, VIP, wheel

3

noun

Meaning 3

Something of less importance than its treatment suggests; also, something which is bland or unremarkable in appearance or impact.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: nothing sandwich, unthing, bagatelle, bag of shells, bric-a-brac, dicky, dicky-bird, fico, fig, flamfew, flyspeck, minuity, niff-naff, picayune, scuddick, sop, ticky-tack, toy, trick, trifle, triviality, whiffle, white chip

Antonyms: somethingburger

4

noun

Meaning 4

A matter of no concern, especially one that had been of concern; a non-issue.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal

Examples

  • The forecasted megastorm turned out to be a huge nothingburger.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

The noun is derived from nothing (pronoun, noun) + -burger (suffix forming names of hamburgers served in buns with the addition of specified foodstuffs, or with foodstuffs in place of the usual meat), a metaphorical reference to a burger missing a patty—its most significant component. The word was apparently coined by the American gossip columnist Louella Parsons (1881–1972) in her widely syndicated daily column “Louella’s Move-Go-’Round” of June 1, 1953: see the quotation. The adjective is derived from the noun.

Across languages

Translations

19 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: едно́ голя́мо ни́що (ednó goljámo níšto) — unimportant person — see also nobody, nonentity
  • Slovak: niktoš — unimportant person — see also nobody, nonentity
  • Spanish: don nadie — unimportant person — see also nobody, nonentity
  • Spanish: cero a la izquierda — unimportant person — see also nobody, nonentity
  • Bulgarian: ни́що (níšto) — something of little importance
  • Bulgarian: едно́то ни́що (ednóto níšto) — something of little importance
  • Danish: fupnummer — something of little importance
  • Danish: varm luft — something of little importance
  • Finnish: yhtä tyhjän kanssa — something of little importance
  • German: heiße Luft — something of little importance
  • German: Lacher — something of little importance
  • German: Luftnummer — something of little importance
  • Macedonian: ништо плескавица (ništo pleskavica) — something of little importance
  • Slovak: malichernosť — something of little importance
  • Slovak: šuviks — something of little importance
  • Swedish: skitsak — something of little importance
  • Swedish: struntsak — something of little importance
  • Welsh: peth dibwys — something of little importance
  • Welsh: mân beth — something of little importance