vain
Americanadjective
-
vainer,
comparative
-
vainest
superlative
-
excessively proud of or concerned about one's own appearance, qualities, achievements, etc.; conceited.
a vain dandy.
- Synonyms:
- overweening, arrogant, proud, vainglorious, self-complacent, egotistic
- Antonyms:
- humble
-
proceeding from or showing pride in or concern about one's appearance, qualities, etc.; resulting from or displaying vanity.
He made some vain remarks about his accomplishments.
-
ineffectual or unsuccessful; futile.
vain hopes;
a vain effort;
a vain war.
- Synonyms:
- unavailing, fruitless
- Antonyms:
- useful
-
without real significance, value, or importance; baseless or worthless.
vain pageantry;
vain display.
-
Archaic. senseless or foolish.
idioms
adjective
-
inordinately proud of one's appearance, possessions, or achievements
-
given to ostentatious display, esp of one's beauty
-
worthless
-
senseless or futile
noun
-
to no avail; fruitlessly
-
-
to use the name of someone, esp God, without due respect or reverence
-
humorous to mention someone's name
-
Synonym Usage
See useless.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of vain
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Old French, from Latin vānus “empty, vain”
Explanation
If you spend all day admiring yourself in reflective surfaces — mirrors, pools of water, the backs of spoons — people may think you are conceited, or vain. Vain is from Latin vanus, "empty," and in English it originally meant "lacking value or effect, futile," like your vain attempt to find a pencil in your messy, overstuffed backpack. Likewise, the phrase "in vain" means "without success." Vain also means "conceited, too proud of oneself." Carly Simon's line "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you" is an excellent illustration of this use.
Vocabulary lists containing vain
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act I
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Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" (1863)
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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:
The doctor of the diaries comes across as all too human—stubborn, biased, vain and vindictive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Root's 76 at Edgbaston was in vain but again he was a class above the rest of England's line-up as their top-order concerns remain.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
Woody can be bossy and controlling, jealous and vain.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
Speaking of trillion-dollar leprechauns, you will hunt through all 545 pages in vain for those big “DOGE” savings you were promised.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026
That the wood looked suspiciously like the remains of a ruler Penelope had searched for in vain just the other day was a fact she chose to ignore.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
But are vainer men than me really cultivating their monobrows?
From The Guardian ● May 3, 2017
You might even be vainer for some people might by the label in the belief that is better quality and thus a better value.
From New York Times ● Feb. 12, 2016
For clients who are vainer about their hearing than their eyesight, Otarion, Inc., Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., has designed a hearing aid housed in standard, horn-rimmed glasses.
From Time Magazine Archive
Ulape had two boxes of earrings, for she was vainer than I, and when she put them into her baskets, she drew a thin mark with blue clay across her nose and cheekbones.
From "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell
After receiving on all hands respectful adulations which would have turned a vainer head, the traveller bent his steps southwards, and reached Italy by way of Strasburg and Switzerland.
From Overbeck by J. Beavington Atkinson
Self-defense, the historian wrote, naturally required “the perpetual repetition” of what he called “the vainest and most disgusting of the pronouns”: the first-person singular.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
This vainest of Falstaffs is a genuine slob whom Boritt houses in a shabby bachelor pad wallpapered in purple zebra stripes.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 15, 2021
For years D.C. had the vainest of owners, but he was balanced by Bobby Beathard and Joe Gibbs, two deft managers of ego — both theirs and others.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 13, 2013
The purple sits well on him as he impersonates one of the vainest, cruelest, weakest monarchs the English ever had to tolerate.
From Time Magazine Archive
The vainest, most slap-happy and irreverent of men, in the presence of redwoods, goes under a spell of wonder and respect.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
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.
