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meaninglessness

Meaninglessness is a quality of being hollow or lacking any significance. The meaninglessness of your sister's apology was obvious from the way she rolled her eyes.

Anything that lacks true meaning has the characteristic of meaninglessness. Some philosophers have written extensively about the meaninglessness of life, while your best friend might complain frequently about the meaninglessness of algebra. Both statements imply a lack of significance. You can also use this noun for things that are unintelligible to you: "I don't read French, so I was frustrated by the meaninglessness of the words on the menu at that new café."

Definitions of meaninglessness
  1. noun
    the quality of having no value or significance
    “he resented the meaninglessness of the tasks they assigned him”
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    Antonyms:
    meaningfulness
    the quality of having great value or significance
    types:
    inanity, mindlessness, pointlessness, senselessness, vacuity
    total lack of meaning or ideas
    aimlessness, purposelessness
    the quality of lacking any definite purpose
    type of:
    insignificance
    the quality of having little or no significance
  2. noun
    a message that seems to convey no meaning
    synonyms: bunk, hokum, nonsense, nonsensicality
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    types:
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    absurdity, absurdness, ridiculousness
    a message whose content is at variance with reason
    amphigory, nonsense verse
    nonsensical writing (usually verse)
    balderdash, fiddle-faddle, piffle
    trivial nonsense
    buzzword, cant
    stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless repetition
    cobblers
    nonsense
    crock
    nonsense; foolish talk
    fa la, fal la
    meaningless syllables in the refrain of a partsong
    gibber, gibberish
    unintelligible talking
    incoherence, incoherency, unintelligibility
    nonsense that is simply incoherent and unintelligible
    jabberwocky
    nonsensical language (according to Lewis Carroll)
    flummery, mummery
    meaningless ceremonies and flattery
    empty talk, empty words, hot air, palaver, rhetoric
    loud and confused and empty talk
    rigamarole, rigmarole
    a set of confused and meaningless statements
    schmegegge, shmegegge
    (Yiddish) baloney; hot air; nonsense
    hooey, poppycock, stuff, stuff and nonsense
    senseless talk
    baloney, bilgewater, boloney, bosh, drool, humbug, taradiddle, tarradiddle, tommyrot, tosh, twaddle
    pretentious or silly talk or writing
    word salad
    jumble of incoherent speech as sometimes heard in schizophrenia
    abracadabra
    gibberish and nonsense
    babble, babbling, lallation
    gibberish resembling the sounds of a baby
    blather, blatherskite
    foolish gibberish
    double Dutch
    an incomprehensible talk
    double talk
    deliberately unintelligible gibberish
    gabble, jabber, jabbering
    rapid and indistinct speech
    mumbo jumbo
    language or ritual causing, or intending to cause, confusion
    type of:
    content, message, subject matter, substance
    what a communication that is about something is about
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘meaninglessness'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback
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