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.
Meaningless banter, a subgenre of small talk according to Quinn, is its own art.
From New York Times • Jan. 24, 2023
Meaningless choices were preceded by a readiness potential, just as in previous experiments.
From Scientific American • Jan. 16, 2023
Meaningless Damian Lillard free throws with 10.7 seconds left were the team’s only points in the final 3:41 of the game.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 25, 2021
Meaningless in some ways, full of meaning in others, and all of it underscoring the obvious — that a fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal will not come easily for the Americans.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 11, 2021
Meaningless words that didn’t nourish us, that didn’t comfort us, that kept us prisoners in her alphabet world.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
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.
