vacuous

[vak-yoo-uh s]

See more synonyms for vacuous on Thesaurus.com

adjective

without contents; empty: the vacuous air.
lacking in ideas or intelligence: a vacuous mind.
expressing or characterized by a lack of ideas or intelligence; inane; stupid: a vacuous book.

purposeless; idle: a vacuous way of life.

Origin of vacuous

1645–55; < Latin vacuus empty; see -ous

Related formsvac·u·ous·ly, adverbvac·u·ous·ness, nounnon·vac·u·ous, adjectivenon·vac·u·ous·ly, adverbnon·vac·u·ous·ness, nounun·vac·u·ous, adjectiveun·vac·u·ous·ly, adverbun·vac·u·ous·ness, noun

Can be confusedvacant vacuous vapid

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for vacuous

blank, drained, dull, dumb, foolish, half-baked, inane, minus, shallow, silly, stupid, superficial, vacant, void, uncomprehending, airheaded, birdbrained, emptied, lamebrained, unreasoning

Examples from the Web for vacuous

Contemporary Examples of vacuous

Smith speaks with perfect articulation and a vacuous undertone laces her words.
Shakespeare’s Movie Magic
Marina Watts, Malcolm Jones
April 24, 2014
The assumption that feminism comes in a neat, Xeroxable package is gravely outmoded and vacuous.
Despite What You May Think, Miley Cyrus and Rihanna Are Feminists
Rawiya Kameir
November 21, 2013
Speaking of Daisy, Mulligan does as elegant a job as possible portraying such a vacuous character.
The Great Gatsby, Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Is a Relentless Assault on the Senses
Marlow Stern
May 8, 2013
In America, however, there is a stubborn strain of vacuous unawareness that reflects no credit on American society.
Ignorant America
Tunku Varadarajan
August 30, 2010

Historical Examples of vacuous

A sudden animation replaced the vacuous stare of the blue eyes.
The Fortune Hunter
Louis Joseph Vance
In less than a fortnight he had fallen to vacuous imbecility.
Nana, The Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille
Emile Zola
Those eyes were the shiny, vacuous, soulless eyes of a madman!
The Floating Island of Madness
Jason Kirby
He was slouching along with his hands in his pockets, and a vacuous look in his face.
Novel Notes
Jerome K. Jerome
Again a wait, while they looked at one another with vacuous eyes.
The Cross-Cut
Courtney Ryley Cooper

British Dictionary definitions for vacuous

vacuous

adjective

containing nothing; empty
bereft of ideas or intelligence; mindless
characterized by or resulting from vacancy of minda vacuous gaze
indulging in no useful mental or physical activity; idle
logic maths (of an operator or expression) having no import; idle: in (x) (John is tall) the quantifier (x) is vacuous

Derived Formsvacuously, adverbvacuousness, noun

Word Origin for vacuous

C17: from Latin vacuus empty, from vacāre to be empty

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for vacuous

adj.

1640s, "empty," from Latin vacuus "empty, void, free" (see vacuum). Figurative sense of "empty of ideas" is from 1848. Related: Vacuously; vacuousness.