emptiness
Americannoun
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of emptiness
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.
Vocabulary lists containing emptiness
"Just Lather, That's All" and "The Woman Who Was Death"
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The Suffix -ness, Part 2
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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.
Speaking following Wednesday's investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle he said he felt "emptiness" at the team's league position, but insisted he remained "optimistic that we will remain in the Premier League".
From BBC • May 13, 2026
Heraskevych meanwhile told the BBC that being banned only left him feeling "emptiness."
From BBC • Feb. 12, 2026
In sealing the names of the dead within them, the yizkor books refill that emptiness with the promise of memory.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026
The emptiness of such platitudes in this moment leaves much to be desired.
From Salon • Jan. 10, 2026
The plants in the thicket stretch and grow over the new slice of emptiness.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
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.
