adjective
Usage
What are other ways to say inane? Something inane lacks sense, significance, or ideas. Do you know when to use inane, fatuous, silly, foolish, stupid, and asinine? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of inane
First recorded in 1655–65, inane is from the Latin word inānis
Explanation
If something is inane, it's silly or senseless. If you just want to space out, you won't mind the inane chatter on TV, as long as it's on. Inane comes from the Latin inanis, for empty, and you can think of it as empty-headed. We call something inane if it states the obvious, or is really silly in a way that seems unintelligent. If you give your boss a presentation in a bunny suit and sing a song about being happy, she might say, "Get out of here with your inane bunny act!" Other synonyms are stupid, vacuous, ridiculous, pointless.
Vocabulary lists containing inane
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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The Catcher in the Rye
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "I"
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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.
No great loss if so; with his inane, surfer-dude personality, he’s like an extraterrestrial Jeff Spicoli without the comic gifts.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 17, 2025
Students are already using large language models to answer questions about deeper things, and the responses range from the inane to the untrue.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 14, 2025
Trump’s moment of the night ended up feeling tacked on, as James Austin Johnson appeared suddenly in an already solid sketch about Gen Alpha slang and inane podcasts for teenage boys.
From Salon • Oct. 19, 2025
The uproar even produced this exquisitely inane headline from the New York Times: “What Charlie Kirk Could Mean for the Future of Marriage.”
From Salon • Sep. 28, 2025
I’d had to look up the word inane.
From "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe" by Benjamin Alire Saenz
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.
