Dictionary

nonentity en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio

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 *h₁es- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- Proto-Indo-European *-t Proto-Indo-European *bʰúHt Proto-Italic *ezom~*som Archaic Latin 𐌄𐌔𐌏𐌌 (esom) Old Latin esum Latin sumbf. Latin ēns Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ts Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts Proto-Italic *-tāts Latin -tās Medieval Latin entitāsbor. English entity English nonentity From non- + entity.

Meanings

1. (countable) An unimportant or insignificant person or thing.
   • The Queen Mother detests, but she dreads me—my uncle is indifferent, but finds me of use—our new Queen is already a nonentity—and Louis knows that my house is the most agreeable in Paris. 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 201–202:
   • But I am not the penniless nonentity I was when we first met; I can offer an honorable if not a brilliant marriage; and at the very lowest I can provide my wife – my widow, my relict – with a decent competence, an assured future. 1973, Patrick O'Brian, HMS Surprise, →ISBN:
   • Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley, it's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it? 2000 July 8, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], “Mad-Eye Moody”, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter; 4), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 179:
   • He allowed himself to become a nonentity, a void, a receptacle for the voices of the world. 2005, Christopher Paolini, “Visions Near and Far”, in Eldest, page 538:
   • Lord, lord, Carrados, the tragic monotony of your elderly professional nonentity! I've known men who've whispered to me between the pulls at confidential pipes that they've come to hate the streets and the houses and the same old everlasting silly faces that they met day after day until they began to think very queer thoughts of how they might get away from it all. 1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC:
2. (uncountable) The state of not existing; nonexistence.
   • New objects, new amusements, will occupy her mind; and unhappiness, equally unsuspected and unspoken, will die of its own nonentity. 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 201:
   • Gay men have no identity. They appropriate badly that of straight men who are all fucked up in the first place over thir ^([sic]) mythic masculinity stereotype. So, twice removed, the gay man flounders through life doubly fucked up dancing the dance of non-entity around the bright, burning flame of sex, power and upward mobility. 1984 February 4, Vincent F. Luti, “Mouths Open, Only Singing”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 28, page 5:

Forms

Antonyms

big wheel · somebody · big cheese · big hitter · important person

Deriveds

nonentitize · nonentitive · nonentityism

Hypernyms

person

Hyponyms

worthless person

Relateds

small fry · small-timer · small potatoes · nonebrity · lay figure

Synonyms

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

Translations (23)

fr moins-que-rien (an unimportant or insignificant person) · it nullità (an unimportant or insignificant person) · uk нікче́ма (an unimportant or insignificant person) · cs nýmand (an unimportant or insignificant person) · it uomo da niente (an unimportant or insignificant person) · pl miernota (an unimportant or insignificant person) · mi mōri (an unimportant or insignificant person) · ur ادنیٰ (an unimportant or insignificant person) · ru ничто́жество (an unimportant or insignificant person) · it sconosciuto (an unimportant or insignificant person) · nl schertsfiguur (an unimportant or insignificant person) · is smámenni (an unimportant or insignificant person) · fi nolla (an unimportant or insignificant person) · nn null (an unimportant or insignificant person) · bg нищожество (an unimportant or insignificant person) · it estraneo (an unimportant or insignificant person) · sv nolla (an unimportant or insignificant person) · uk жалюгі́ддя (an unimportant or insignificant person) · nb null (an unimportant or insignificant person) · es nulidad (an unimportant or insignificant person) · sk niktoš (an unimportant or insignificant person) · is núll (an unimportant or insignificant person) · it zero assoluto (an unimportant or insignificant person)