nonentity
Americannoun
-
a person or thing of no importance.
- Synonyms:
- nullity, zero, mediocrity, cipher, nobody
-
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
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
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "N"
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Clean Getaway
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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.
“What universal binomial denominations were his as Entity and Nonentity? Assumed by any or known to none he was Everyman or Noman.”
From New York Times • Jan. 25, 2018
Wild Bill was killed on the afternoon of Aug. 2, 1876 in the Number Ten Saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, by Nonentity Jack McCall.
From Time Magazine Archive
Celebrity whom none has seen, Save some Post Prandial Marine, No magazine can reproduce Your Photograph.—Oh, what's the use Of doing things when one may be So Famous a Nonentity!
From The Mythological Zoo by Herford, Oliver
Democritus, on the contrary, declared for two co-equal elements, the Full and the Empty, or Being and Nonentity.
From A Short History of Greek Philosophy by Marshall, John
Loud-blaring Nonentity, no force of trumpets, cash, Long-Acre art, or universal flunkeyhood of men, makes thee an Entity; thou art a _Non_entity, and deceptive Simulacrum, more accursed than thou seemest.
From Past and Present by Carlyle, Thomas
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.
