Dictionary

meaningless en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈmiː.nɪŋ.ləs/

Etymology

Etymology tree English meaning Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der. Proto-Germanic *leusaną Proto-Germanic *lausaz Proto-Germanic *-lausaz Proto-West Germanic *-laus Old English -lēas Middle English -les English -less English meaningless From meaning + -less.

Meanings

1. Lacking meaning.
   • The word "gugugu" is meaningless in English.
   • As the years go by, speech reverts to childhood levels of disfluency, with more pauses, more errors, more repeated words, but even the peak years are not great: up to 8 percent of the average person’s word output consists of meaningless fillers and placeholders like um, uh and er. 2007 August 24, William Grimes, “Uh, Lead My Rips: No More Bloopers”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2013:
2. Insignificant; not worthy of importance.
   • Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless. 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 24 Aug 2013:
   • All our efforts were ultimately meaningless.

Forms

Antonyms

significant · meaningful · sensical · meaningful

Deriveds

meaninglessness · meaninglessly

Synonyms

nonsensical · senseless · unmeaningful · hollow · trivial · negligible

Translations (68)

tr manasız (lacking meaning) · fr dépourvu de sens (lacking meaning) · ga gan chiall (lacking meaning) · fr dénué de sens (lacking meaning) · ja 取るに足らない (lacking meaning) · la vānus (insignificant) · pl bez znaczenia (lacking meaning) · sv betydelselös (lacking meaning) · lt bereikšmis (lacking meaning) · tr saçma (lacking meaning) · nb meningsløs (lacking meaning) · fi mitätön (insignificant) · tr boş (lacking meaning) · nl zinloos (lacking meaning) · nn meiningslaus (lacking meaning) · ja つまらない (lacking meaning) · hi नगण्य (insignificant) · ota بی معنی (lacking meaning) · th ไม่มีความหมาย (lacking meaning) · hi निरर्थक (lacking meaning) · fi merkityksetön (insignificant) · sco meaninless (lacking meaning) · eo sensignifa (lacking meaning) · el χωρίς σημασία (lacking meaning) · bg безсмислен (lacking meaning) · pt sem sentido (lacking meaning) · sh bèsmislen (lacking meaning) · de sinnlos (lacking meaning) · ja 無意味な (lacking meaning) · bg незначителен (insignificant) · eo ventaĵa (insignificant) · cy diystyr (lacking meaning) · bg безцелен (lacking meaning) · ru бессмы́сленный (lacking meaning) · es sin significado (lacking meaning) · it senza senso (lacking meaning) · lt nereikšmingas (lacking meaning) · pl bezsensowny (lacking meaning) · hi अर्थहीन (lacking meaning) · hi तुच्छ (insignificant) · et mõttetu (lacking meaning) · tr anlamsız (lacking meaning) · vi vô nghĩa (lacking meaning) · hy անիմաստ (lacking meaning) · gl sen sentido (lacking meaning) · it senza capo né coda (lacking meaning) · it insignificante (lacking meaning) · fi merkityksetön (lacking meaning) · te అర్థంలేని (lacking meaning) · ota یاوان (insignificant) · nb meiningslaus (lacking meaning) · ca sense sentit (lacking meaning) · es insignificativo (lacking meaning) · cs bezvýznamný (lacking meaning) · nb meiningsløs (lacking meaning) · da betydningsløs (lacking meaning) · nb meningslaus (lacking meaning) · sh бѐсмислен (lacking meaning) · de bedeutungslos (lacking meaning) · az mənasız (lacking meaning) · es insignificativo (insignificant) · it privo di significato (lacking meaning) · mi hakihakiā (lacking meaning) · nl betekenisloos (lacking meaning) · th ไร้ความหมาย (lacking meaning) · pt insignificante (lacking meaning) · lv bezjēdzīgs (lacking meaning) · uk безглуздий (lacking meaning)