nonentity
Americannoun
-
a person or thing of no importance.
- Synonyms:
- nullity, zero, mediocrity, cipher, nobody
-
something that does not exist or exists only in imagination.
noun
-
an insignificant person or thing
-
a nonexistent thing
-
the state of not existing; nonexistence
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of nonentity
Explanation
The noun nonentity refers to a person of no significance or importance. If you are a member of a sports team, but spend all your time sitting on the bench watching the rest of the team play, you will probably feel like a nonentity. Something that is an entity exists, and if you are considered a nonentity, you might as well not exist. A political nonentity has no power, and a social nonentity blends in with the wallpaper. Not only people are considered nonentities; groups or things can be nonentities too. If a nonentity beats a nationally ranked team, that's a real upset. The cereal brand that stays on the shelf and is ignored can also be considered a nonentity in the cereal market.
Vocabulary lists containing nonentity
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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:
Efforts to make it appear that one of the world’s wickedest men would be in thrall to this milky, recessive nonentity are laughable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
The follow-up on the red carpet was just as much of a nonentity, asking Garner what fans should know about the Silver Surfer.
From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2025
In the primary’s final days, New Hampshire Democrats who are supporting Mr. Biden engaged in a bit of self-congratulation while dismissing Mr. Phillips as a nonentity.
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
A few days ago he called the Kremlin leader "a nonentity" and "a cowardly waste of space", says BBC Russia editor Steve Rosenberg.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2023
Since I had applied for such a nonentity of a job, Quackenbush, who had known as little about me as I had about him, knew now.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
He’s always been good at inhabiting emotional and psychological nonentities, whether as a replicant in “Blade Runner 2049” or as a man scarcely more lifelike than his blow-up doll in “Lars and the Real Girl.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2022
Autocratic leaders, as Joachim Fest writes, are often "demonic nonentities."
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2021
Ocasio-Cortez is a popular target of debate-me dudes, who can be high-profile media figures or nonentities.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 29, 2019
He was a nonentity even among the nonentities who remained after Yeltsin’s perpetual clearing-out of his cabinets.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 22, 2017
In a few weeks the rectory would be once more tenanted by one of those nonentities the squire had either patronised or scorned all his life.
From Robert Elsmere by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.
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.
