emptiness

American  

[emp-tee-nis] / ˈɛmp ti nɪs /

noun

1. the fact or state of containing nothing or of being without the usual or appropriate contents.

   All morning the emptiness of the cupboard, the thought of the house without even tea or butter, had been troubling him.

2. the fact or state of being without human occupants or human activity.

   A broad, slanting patch of sunshine cut across the gloomy, lifeless emptiness of the church.

3. empty or barren space; void.

   If we leave today we can reach the outpost by the 27th—through another 800 miles of flat, windy emptiness.

4. the fact or quality of being without force or effect; hollowness.

   Continued support for brutal regimes reveals the hypocrisy and emptiness of the administration’s professed goal of spreading democracy.

5. the quality or feeling of being without significance or purpose; meaninglessness.

   In the 21st century we are more likely to experience aimlessness and emptiness than guilt.

6. the fact or quality of being unoccupied by useful work or activity; idleness.

   An active man, not yet sixty, he was unused to the emptiness of his days after he retired.

7. the fact or quality of being completely spent or drained emotionally by trauma.

   Many women describe a feeling of numbness and emptiness following a miscarriage.

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Other Word Forms

• self-emptiness noun

Etymology

Origin of emptiness

empty ( def. ) + -ness ( def. )

Explanation

Has your girlfriend left you? Your boss fired you and your dog run away from home? Then you're probably feeling a state of emptiness, a condition of meaninglessness or futility. Cheer up, you could try writing a country music song. Although the emotional sense of emptiness is the most common, it can also mean a literal state of physical emptiness -— as in "the emptiness of space." Either way, emptiness might seem like a pretty bad thing, but consider the Bhuddist understanding of the term, for whom emptiness is in fact the ultimate virtue: “Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities,” said the famous Japanese teacher, D. T. Suzuki.

Example Sentences

Maintaining this pleasant emptiness is no easy task, as ghosts of Charles’s past slowly begin to invade his idyll.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 4, 2026

My nights are draped in the silence of emptiness.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 31, 2025

"I'm struggling to put into words the profound emptiness I'm feeling since learning of James Ransone's passing," she wrote on her Instagram story.

From BBC • Dec. 22, 2025

Observers noted echoes of Fitzgerald’s novel in the scene: a world obsessed with appearances, where glitter and spectacle mask the emptiness beneath.

From Salon • Nov. 2, 2025

I couldn’t see anything except blackness, or hear anything except a kind of ringing, and all I felt was emptiness everywhere around me.

From "Ida B" by Katherine Hannigan

Related Words

• desolation
• vacuum