adjective
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bereft of strength, sharpness, flavour, etc; flat
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boring or dull; lifeless
vapid talk
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of vapid
First recorded in 1650–60; from Latin vapidus; akin to vapor
Explanation
Reserve the adjective vapid for the person in your office who brings nothing to the table, except maybe the doughnuts. Vapid is an adjective to describe someone or something that is dull or uninspiring. "We prefer not to consider the shockingly vapid and primitive comments uttered by athletes in postcontest interviews," David Foster Wallace wrote. The word was originally used in English in a much more literal sense, describing beverages that lacked flavor. It comes from the Latin word vapidus, literally "having exhaled its vapor."
Vocabulary lists containing vapid
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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Even More Negative Words to Describe a Person
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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.
"Someone can be vapid, have no depth and be on reality TV, but that doesn't mean that's true for every contestant," she adds.
From BBC • Feb. 28, 2026
Ed, one of the sons of the family -- played by Turner -- serves as a narrator of sorts and sums up the rest of his family as "lazy, mediocre, vapid egotists".
From Barron's • Feb. 14, 2026
After returning to France, she moved past society gossip and vapid crooks like Weidmann to write notable profiles of Philippe Pétain and Charles de Gaulle.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 19, 2026
For every thoughtful, interesting question asked of an artist on a red carpet or during a junket, there are three more vapid ones, and offenders almost always have a tiny microphone.
From Salon • Jan. 11, 2026
“If it isn’t the genius who thinks vapid video games about intergalactic zombies are twenty-first-century learning tools.”
From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein
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.
