vacuous
Americanadjective
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without contents; empty.
the vacuous air.
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lacking in ideas or intelligence.
a vacuous mind.
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expressing or characterized by a lack of ideas or intelligence; inane; stupid.
a vacuous book.
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purposeless; idle.
a vacuous way of life.
adjective
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containing nothing; empty
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bereft of ideas or intelligence; mindless
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characterized by or resulting from vacancy of mind
a vacuous gaze
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indulging in no useful mental or physical activity; idle
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logic maths (of an operator or expression) having no import; idle: in (x) (John is tall) the quantifier (x) is vacuous
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of vacuous
1645–55; from Latin vacuus “empty”; see -ous
Explanation
Reserved for the harmlessly stupid and truly meaningless, vacuous is a smart-sounding way to describe something dumb. Celebrity gossip and reality TV are usually pretty vacuous, even if they're fun. If someone smiles at you in a way that seems fake or empty, you could describe the smile as vacuous. An example of a vacuous comment would be a politician promising to make things better without explaining how. If something is vacuous, it's like a vacuum — hollow, empty, devoid of substance.
Vocabulary lists containing vacuous
The Great Gatsby
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100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know
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Zilch, Zip, Nada: Words For Nothing
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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.
The few other highlights in the show are overwhelmed by a surfeit of lifeless abstractions, eye-glazing prints and vacuous conceptual works.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026
As for the music itself, while it was enough to convince some fans, the lack of actual human creative input made it sound "vacuous and pristine", she says.
From BBC • Aug. 22, 2025
These are the adult tantrums of “I know you are, but what am I?” bullies, vacuous but vicious.
From Slate • Feb. 21, 2025
It's the story of Cohn, who at the top of his game adopts and mentors the vacuous and malleable Donald Trump.
From Salon • Oct. 2, 2024
Her face tear-streaked but quite expressionless, almost vacuous, she picked up her handbag from the floor, opened it, and took out the small pea-green clothbound book.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
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.
