noun
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the state of being null
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a null or legally invalid act or instrument
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something null, ineffective, characterless, etc
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of nullity
From the Medieval Latin word nūllitās, dating back to 1560–70. See null, -ity
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In death, the law renders him a legal nullity.
From Slate ● Apr. 15, 2025
In the process of conversion, however, she’s reduced to a nullity with a grating personal manner.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 14, 2024
So what we're going to do is we're going to say, "That was a nullity, it never happened, we are nullifying her actions and . . ."
From Salon ● Apr. 5, 2023
A city that could imagine its own improbable existence into reality could just as easily relegate this now-inconvenient natural feature into a nullity or a comedian’s gag.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2022
The agreeable nullity of Leon’s life was a polished artifact, its ease deceptive, its limitations achieved by invisible hard work and the accidents of character, none of which she could hope to rival.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Under such circumstances, and, doubtless, stung by the ungraciousness of the treatment he had received, he directed that the commissions should neither be recorded nor delivered, but treated as nullities.
From Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States by Martin Van Buren
Things had all been stark, unreal, barren, mere nullities before.
From The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence
The national sales, not having been confirmed by Act of Parliament, were regarded by the tribunals as nullities.
From The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 1 by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay
Never forget," said he in an address to the Assembly, "that laws are mere nullities without the necessary force to sustain them.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol 1-98, 1850-1899 None by Various (magazine) Harper
Tetrachordon: expositions upon the foure chief places in Scripture which treat of mariage, or nullities in manage, wherein the doctrine and discipline of divorce, as was lately publish'd, is confirm'd.
From Life of John Milton by Richard Garnett
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
