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vacuous

[vak-yoo-uh s]
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adjective
  1. without contents; empty: the vacuous air.
  2. lacking in ideas or intelligence: a vacuous mind.
  3. expressing or characterized by a lack of ideas or intelligence; inane; stupid: a vacuous book.
  4. purposeless; idle: a vacuous way of life.
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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

Examples from the Web for vacuousness

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Then he looked up at Victoria with something like vacuousness.

    A Bed of Roses

    W. L. George

British Dictionary definitions for vacuousness

vacuous

adjective
  1. containing nothing; empty
  2. bereft of ideas or intelligence; mindless
  3. characterized by or resulting from vacancy of minda vacuous gaze
  4. indulging in no useful mental or physical activity; idle
  5. logic maths (of an operator or expression) having no import; idle: in (x) (John is tall) the quantifier (x) is vacuous
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Derived Formsvacuously, adverbvacuousness, noun

Word Origin

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 vacuousness

vacuous

adj.

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

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper