empty
Americanadjective
-
emptier,
comparative
-
emptiest
superlative
-
containing nothing; having none of the usual or appropriate contents.
an empty bottle.
- Antonyms:
- full
-
having no occupant or occupants; vacant; unoccupied.
an empty house.
-
without cargo or load.
an empty wagon.
-
destitute of people or human activity.
We walked along the empty streets of the city at night.
-
destitute of some quality or qualities; devoid (usually followed byof ).
Theirs is a life now empty of happiness.
-
without force, effect, or significance; hollow; meaningless.
empty compliments;
empty pleasures.
- Synonyms:
- vain, useless, pointless, ineffectual, ineffective, futile, bootless, barren
-
not employed in useful activity or work; idle.
empty summer days.
-
I'm feeling rather empty—let's have lunch.
-
without knowledge or sense; frivolous; senseless.
an empty head.
-
completely spent of emotion.
The experience had left him with an empty heart.
verb (used with object)
-
empties,
present (3rd person singular)
-
emptied,
past participle, past
-
emptying
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
empties,
present (3rd person singular)
-
emptied,
past participle, past
-
emptying
present participle
-
to become empty.
The room emptied rapidly after the lecture.
-
to discharge contents, as a river.
The river empties into the sea.
noun
-
empties
plural
adjective
-
containing nothing
-
without inhabitants; vacant or unoccupied
-
carrying no load, passengers, etc
-
without purpose, substance, or value
an empty life
-
insincere or trivial
empty words
-
not expressive or vital; vacant
she has an empty look
-
informal hungry
-
devoid; destitute
a life empty of happiness
-
informal drained of energy or emotion
after the violent argument he felt very empty
-
maths logic (of a set or class) containing no members
-
philosophy logic (of a name or description) having no reference
verb
-
to make or become empty
-
to discharge (contents)
-
to unburden or rid (oneself)
to empty oneself of emotion
noun
Usage
What is a basic definition of empty? Empty describes something as containing nothing or to remove contents from something. Empty also describes something that is meaningless. Empty has several other senses as an adjective and a verb. If something is empty, there is nothing in it. Empty is the opposite of full and is used to describe anything that has a complete absence of contents. Sometimes, empty has slightly different specific meanings depending on context. For example, an empty room might only lack people or it might be totally bare, with no furniture. Empty is also used in many figurative expressions, such as “an empty head,” meaning the person is unintelligent.
- Real-life examples: An empty box has nothing inside it. An empty refrigerator has no food or anything else inside of it. An empty gascan has zero gas in it.
- Used in a sentence: Luis drank the bottle of soda until it was totally empty.
- Used in a sentence: Antonio emptied the bucket of water into the river.
- Real-life examples: If you give an empty compliment, you don’t actually mean the compliment or believe it to be true. An empty gesture is one that you don’t intend on doing or that won’t have any effect, like offering to help your friend with math when you don’t understand the math problems, either. If you have an empty life, you think your life doesn’t have any meaning or purpose.
- Used in a sentence: My sister laughed at my empty threats of breaking her smartphone because she knew I would never actually do it.
Synonym Usage
Empty, vacant, blank, void denote absence of content or contents. Empty means without appropriate or accustomed contents: an empty refrigerator. Vacant is usually applied to that which is temporarily unoccupied: a vacant chair; three vacant apartments. Blank applies to surfaces free from any marks or lacking appropriate markings, openings, etc.: blank paper; a blank wall. Void emphasizes completely unfilled space with vague, unspecified, or no boundaries: void and without form.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
emptiernoun
-
emptinessnoun
-
emptiableadjective
-
overemptyadjective
-
quasi-emptyadjective
-
self-emptyingadjective
-
unemptiedadjective
-
unemptyadjective
-
emptilyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
emptysimple
-
emptiessimple
-
have emptiedperfect
-
has emptiedperfect
-
am emptyingprogressive
-
are emptyingprogressive
-
is emptyingprogressive
-
have been emptyingperfect progressive
-
has been emptyingperfect progressive
Past
-
emptiedsimple
-
had emptiedperfect
-
was emptyingprogressive
-
were emptyingprogressive
-
had been emptyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of empty
First recorded before 900; Middle English (with intrusive -p- ); Old English ǣm(et)tig “vacant,” from ǣm(et)ta “rest, leisure” ( ǣ- a- 3 + unattested Germanic mōtithō “accommodation”; cf. must 1, meet 1) + -ig -y 1 )
Explanation
If you're an optimist, you're happy that your glass is still half full. If you're a pessimist, you can't help but notice that 50% of your glass is now empty — that is, it contains nothing. Empty comes from an Old English word meaning "at leisure," or in other words, "unoccupied." Over time, the sense of that meaning changed from "not at work" to "devoid of contents." By the tenth century, any container that could be filled or full could also be emptied or empty. As the word continued to evolve, it developed a more figurative sense. If you feel sad and lost, you might say that you feel so empty. If you want to go to the movies and your parents say, "No, but maybe tomorrow," you probably consider that an empty promise, one that will never be fulfilled.
Vocabulary lists containing empty
In the Mood? 100 Words to Describe Emotions
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act IV
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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:
His patch is on top of an empty water tank, where he spreads out a sheet and arranges two pillows.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
USA Today published a photo earlier this year of a sailor’s mostly empty lunch tray, which included a few chunks of boiled carrot and processed meat of an indeterminate nature.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
This concern about the loss of farmland is a constant of the opposition to large projects that might bring growth to rural areas suffering from population declines, shrinking schools and empty houses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Hugo Lara and Manolo Cabrera — the Mexican DJ pair better known as RØZ — casually strolled through Sightglass Coffee in Hollywood, one gripping a half-melted iced coffee, the other an empty Erewhon juice bottle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
We empty and refill drawers stuffed with loose drill bits and wood screws, batteries, rolls of tape, and twenty-year-old receipts for two-dollar bottles of glue.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Calderas form when an eruption empties such an enormous volume of magma that the ground above the reservoir collapses.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
She mops the comb plates of escalators, empties trash bins and sweeps the platform of the No. 7 line subway.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
“A bridge empties when the tolls gets high enough — no demolition required.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026
Mifepristone, which prevents pregnancy progression, is used alongside misoprostol, which empties the uterus, in the majority of abortions in the United States.
From Barron's ● May 2, 2026
Mr. Daniels calls me to him as the class room empties for lunch.
From "Fish in a Tree" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Baskets I had paused over were emptier when I returned.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
Future observers will live in a universe that appears far smaller and emptier than the one we can see today.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 25, 2026
More: Oil settles at highest price in over a week, as supplies ‘are getting emptier each week Hormuz stays closed’
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 3, 2026
The island didn’t just feel emptier, it was.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2026
On and on she walked, and the streets became darker and emptier.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
Wherever you travel in the universe, whether to a nearby galaxy or to the deepest interior of the emptiest void, you will never truly be alone.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 10, 2026
Per pupil spending in the district is $19,798, but per pupil costs at the 10 emptiest schools is double—almost $38,000.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
So it’s nice that Anne-Lise Millan-Brun, the founder of a bicycle school in Paris, has chosen as a training ground one of the emptiest places in this crowded city.
From Slate ● Mar. 30, 2023
Last fall, the region recorded its emptiest harvest year in recent history, she said.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 10, 2023
On a dirt track in the Tanami Desert–normally one of the emptiest places on Earth–they came over a slight rise just as another vehicle was approaching.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
A blaze near Plomari, the old ouzo town on the island’s south coast, was eating coastal homes while roughly 100 firefighters fought it, and a seaside resort emptied into the dark.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
To repay his former employer and his creditors, he emptied his retirement account and sold his house, his car and the cards.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
Some people may also feel as though the bowel has not emptied completely.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
“Everybody feels better after a bowel movement. So if you gave yourself an enema that really made you feel like you were emptied, you’ll feel good. It doesn’t mean your health is better.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
I spoke to him softly as I emptied them, promising I would look after his daughter.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
Time had punctured the roof with 20 holes and whenever it rained, Baker would run around placing buckets under them and emptying them when they were full, like a game of Whac-A-Mole.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
When infected mosquitoes are found, workers treat the area where they were collected with adulticide and conduct “source reduction,” a sophisticated way of describing what usually amounts to emptying containers of standing water.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
Removing stagnant water, such as by emptying flowerpot plates, overturning unused pails and breaking up hardened soil, can help break the dengue transmission cycle.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
In a slowly emptying village in northern Kazakhstan, wild grass engulfed the entrances of abandoned apartment blocks, as children's songs spilled into the street from the only building still occupied.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
I yelled to Lorraine, who was running around emptying ashtrays.
From "The Pigman" by Paul Zindel
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.
