vanitas
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of vanitas
1905–10; Latin: literally, vanity
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.
Harnett had much simpler taste than his patrons, and while “Ease” is not a vanitas painting auguring death, he was known for incorporating traces of humor and irony in his paintings.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025
Yet pronk works carried deeper meanings as the earliest forms of vanitas, a genre that uses symbolism to convey the brevity of life and futility of pleasure.
From Salon • Mar. 10, 2024
The modern vanitas also skewers the superficial and worldly, focusing on darker truths, insidious causes and structural failures.
From Washington Post • Nov. 3, 2022
It’s a Conceptual art interpretation of an old vanitas motif in painting.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 13, 2018
The End," and two lines before the close of "Vanity Fair" we find him writing—in the prime of his life, "Ah, vanitas vanitatum!
From Without Prejudice by Zangwill, Israel
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.
