meaningless

English

Etymology

From meaning +‎ -less.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmiːnɪŋləs/
• Hyphenation: mean‧ing‧less

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

meaningless (comparative more meaningless, superlative most meaningless)

1. Lacking meaning.

   Synonyms: nonsensical, senseless

   Antonyms: meaningful, sensical

   The word "gugugu" is meaningless in English.

2. Insignificant; not worthy of importance.

   Synonyms: negligible, trivial, unmeaningful

   Antonyms: meaningful, significant

   All our efforts were ultimately meaningless.

   • 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.

Derived terms

• meaninglessness
• meaninglessly

Translations

lacking meaning

• Armenian: անիմաստ (hy) (animast)
• Azerbaijani: mənasız (az)
• Bulgarian: безсмислен (bg) (bezsmislen), безцелен (bg) (bezcelen)
• Catalan: sense sentit
• Czech: bezvýznamný (cs)
• Danish: betydningsløs
• Dutch: zinloos (nl), betekenisloos (nl)
• Esperanto: sensignifa
• Estonian: mõttetu
• Finnish: merkityksetön (fi)
• French: dénué de sens, dépourvu de sens
• Galician: sen sentido
• German: sinnlos (de), bedeutungslos (de)
• Greek: χωρίς σημασία (chorís simasía)
• Hindi: अर्थहीन (hi) (arthhīn), निरर्थक (hi) (nirarthak)
• Irish: gan chiall
• Italian: senza senso, privo di significato, insignificante (it), senza capo né coda
• Japanese: 無意味な (ja) (muimi na), つまらない (ja) (tsumaranai), 取るに足らない (ja) (toru ni taranai)
• Latvian: bezjēdzīgs
• Lithuanian: nereikšmingas, bereikšmis
• Maori: hakihakiā
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: meningsløs, meiningsløs, meningslaus, meiningslaus

  Nynorsk: meiningslaus

• Ottoman Turkish: بی معنی (bîma’nâ)
• Polish: bez znaczenia, bezsensowny (pl)
• Portuguese: insignificante (pt), sem sentido
• Russian: бессмы́сленный (ru) (bessmýslennyj)
• Scots: meaninless
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бѐсмислен

  Roman: bèsmislen (sh)

• Spanish: sin sentido, insensato (es) m
• Swedish: betydelselös (sv)
• Telugu: అర్థంలేని (arthaṁlēni)
• Thai: ไม่มีความหมาย (mai-mii-kwaam-mǎai), ไร้ความหมาย (rái-kwaam-mǎai)
• Turkish: anlamsız (tr), boş (tr), manasız (tr), saçma (tr)
• Ukrainian: безглуздий (uk) (bezhluzdyj)
• Vietnamese: vô nghĩa (vi)
• Welsh: diystyr (cy)

insignificant

• Bulgarian: незначителен (bg) (neznačitelen)
• Esperanto: ventaĵa
• Finnish: mitätön (fi), merkityksetön (fi)
• Hindi: तुच्छ (hi) (tucch), नगण्य (hi) (nagaṇya)
• Latin: vānus
• Ottoman Turkish: یاوان (yavan)