meaningless
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of meaningless
Explanation
If something's meaningless, it has no real value, purpose, or significance. If someone repeatedly hurts your feelings and casually says they're sorry, you might feel like the apology is meaningless. Words in a book will be meaningless to you if they're written in a language you don't understand, and the small talk you engage in when you run into an acquaintance at the supermarket is often meaningless too. You can probably think of rules that don't have any good reason behind them, and these are also meaningless. When something is important to you, it has meaning — and when it's not, it's meaningless.
Vocabulary lists containing meaningless
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.
The repeated assertions at the top of the prospectus that “our co-founders have each pledged to dedicate 80% of their personal equity in Anthropic to philanthropic causes” are effectively meaningless.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026
The proposal appeared both trivial and pointless: After all, the machine doesn’t “do” anything except change meaningless signs into other meaningless signs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
You could describe that as the meaningless courtesies of routine statecraft, but it also suggested a high-flying hotel guest offering his compliments to the concierge: The eggs this morning were entirely delicious.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
In ordinary life, a difference that small would be meaningless.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
Bucky hadn't deserved to go to trial for a meaningless accident.
From "The Rock and the River" by Kekla Magoon
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
