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
In the primary’s final days, New Hampshire Democrats who are supporting Mr. Biden engaged in a bit of self-congratulation while dismissing Mr. Phillips as a nonentity.
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
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
And now, also in Hollywood fashion, after decades as a nonentity, the L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2022
Since I had applied for such a nonentity of a job, Quackenbush, who had known as little about me as I had about him, knew now.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
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
Autocratic leaders, as Joachim Fest writes, are often "demonic nonentities."
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2021
Ocasio-Cortez is a popular target of debate-me dudes, who can be high-profile media figures or nonentities.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 29, 2019
He was a nonentity even among the nonentities who remained after Yeltsin’s perpetual clearing-out of his cabinets.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 22, 2017
Those were the days of heroes and nonentities; soaring heroes, crawling nonentities.
From Great Ralegh by Hugh de Selincourt
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.
