nonentity
Americannoun
-
nonentities
plural
-
a person or thing of no importance.
- Synonyms:
- nullity, zero, mediocrity, cipher, nobody
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something that does not exist or exists only in imagination.
noun
-
an insignificant person or thing
-
a nonexistent thing
-
the state of not existing; nonexistence
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of nonentity
Explanation
The noun nonentity refers to a person of no significance or importance. If you are a member of a sports team, but spend all your time sitting on the bench watching the rest of the team play, you will probably feel like a nonentity. Something that is an entity exists, and if you are considered a nonentity, you might as well not exist. A political nonentity has no power, and a social nonentity blends in with the wallpaper. Not only people are considered nonentities; groups or things can be nonentities too. If a nonentity beats a nationally ranked team, that's a real upset. The cereal brand that stays on the shelf and is ignored can also be considered a nonentity in the cereal market.
Vocabulary lists containing nonentity
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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.
See Examples For:
Efforts to make it appear that one of the world’s wickedest men would be in thrall to this milky, recessive nonentity are laughable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
A few days ago he called the Kremlin leader "a nonentity" and "a cowardly waste of space", says BBC Russia editor Steve Rosenberg.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2023
Overseas, the U.S. government treated Mr. Joseph like a nonentity.
From New York Times ● Apr. 5, 2023
He has been largely overshadowed in the public's consciousness by the president before him, John F. Kennedy, who dismissed Johnson as a nonentity.
From Salon ● Nov. 28, 2021
He also wasn’t supposed to let me, a nonentity on loan from JV, fill in for him.
From "Here to Stay" by Sara Farizan
He’s always been good at inhabiting emotional and psychological nonentities, whether as a replicant in “Blade Runner 2049” or as a man scarcely more lifelike than his blow-up doll in “Lars and the Real Girl.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2022
The velocity at which running backs go from the country’s biggest athletic stars to nonentities can be jarring.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 30, 2021
Autocratic leaders, as Joachim Fest writes, are often "demonic nonentities."
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2021
Virtually all of these supposed terrorists turned out to be nonentities — “ghost leads,” as they were called.
From New York Times ● Sep. 1, 2021
Among these, it is perfectly true that there existed many obscurities and some obvious nonentities.
From Aspects and Impressions by Edmund Gosse
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.
