mindless
Americanadjective
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without intelligence; senseless.
a mindless creature.
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unmindful or heedless.
mindless of all dangers.
adjective
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stupid or careless
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requiring little or no intellectual effort
a mindless task
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of mindless
before 1000; Middle English myndles, Old English gemyndlēas. See mind, -less
Explanation
Mindless things are done without any care or thought. If the kid sitting next to you in class won't stop the mindless tapping of his pencil against his desk, you'll have a hard time focusing on your vocabulary quiz. If something's careless or lacks reason, you can describe it as mindless, like the casual, mindless violence on a TV show. A mindless task is one that you can do without even thinking about it, like sweeping the sidewalk or stuffing fliers into envelopes. Mindless comes from the Old English myndleas, "foolish or senseless."
Vocabulary lists containing mindless
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.
"I'm not a mindless gambler. These do offer an incentive and I'm in it for the incentive."
From BBC • May 13, 2026
That “high, mindless scream in the getaway car,” Ebert writes, “provides, for me, a very adequate vision of hell.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 24, 2026
If this vapid, airless, mindless time-waster had subversive designs of being a satire about the first lady of the United States, there’s not much it would have changed.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 2, 2026
Cutting out mindless, unnecessary daily expenses — like your daily coffee or subscriptions — can be the start of big changes, as author David Bach noted in the book “Start Late, Finish Rich.”
From MarketWatch • Jan. 30, 2026
The scanner beep, beep, beeps for every purchase, and Dad exchanges mindless words with the clerk about the weather.
From "Muffled" by Jennifer Gennari
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.
