Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Listlessness and dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest; boredom: "The servants relieved their ennui with gambling and gossip about their masters” ( John Barth).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A painful or wearisome state of mind due to the want of any object of interest, or to enforced attention to something destitute of interest; the condition of being bored; tedium.
Wiktionary
- n. A gripping listlessness or melancholia caused by boredom; depression (Wikipedia).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A feeling of weariness and disgust; dullness and languor of spirits, arising from satiety or want of interest; tedium.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the feeling of being bored by something tedious
Etymologies
- French, from Old French enui, from ennuyer, to annoy, bore; see annoy. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Prior to this we'd had limited access to the French word "ennui" - a more grandiose, long-term boredom - but once we had our own word for listless dissatisfaction, we embraced it.”
“So, I suppose, this ennui is the ying to that yang.”
“I suppose this is what they call ennui," said Eric again, after a pause.”
“The ennui is without doubt the worst thing a POW has to contend with.”
“It means the post-novel ennui is wearing off, and maybe when coffeeem sends back "Lucky Day," I'll have something useful to say about it.”
“My current bout of emo and ennui is being laid at the feet of insufficient dairyfat, and as a result, I am treating it by P.O. administration of macaroni and cheese, which seems to be helping.”
“The post-novella ennui is not as bad as the post-novel ennui, but it's still pretty darned draining.”
“On the theory that post-novel ennui is inevitable, and I really only have one more short story to finish in the near future, I did a bad thing.”
“Kind of funny, isn't it, that the Kudeshka word for "schoolchildren" sounds a bit like the English word "ennui"?”
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
“I will not say that the Kingdom of Heaven was within us, for we were just as troublesome and unregenerate as any boys that ever lived on earth before or since, but the word ennui was not in the lexicon of my youth.”
In the days of my youth when I was a student in the University of Virginia, 1888-1893.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ennui’.
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hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 318 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 more...
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words 1
Traduce, Ramify, precipitous, rapture, adumbrate, knell, smolder, vagary, choleric, sibylline, hypocritical, jejune and 135 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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250 Spelling Words
A selected sampling of words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
orecchiette, rhabdomancy, guayabera, orthoepy, opisthenar, maguey, proem, ciabatta, cioppino, banns, concinnity, asthenia and 237 more...
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GRE
droll, dyspeptic, ebullient, ardor, edify, efficacy, malinger, mannered, martinet, maudlin, mendacious, mendicant and 102 more...
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just neat
insolent, redolent, clammy, chunder, berate, vainqueur, neotony, milquetoast, semprini, twaddle, plethora, enteron and 29 more...
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GRE
GRE words from Princeton Review guide, ETS GRE Book from 2010 (for revised test), New Yorker/NY Times articles.
sycophant, obsequious, volubility, equanimity, enervate, effrontery, impertinent, platitude, impudence, quiescent, propitiate, equivocate and 124 more...
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I Can't Be Bothered Thinking Of A Lis...
Anyone who adds to this list is obviously showing too much initiative.
inefficiency, multislacking, cba syndrome, listless, demotivated, shirker, lazybones, half-hearted, goldbricker, scrimshanker, zuzzurellone, apath and 2 more...
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Praxis makes perfect
Words I need to use, learn, memorize
anacoluthon, solipsist, sunlandic, encomiast, behindhand, putative, pullulate, brize, libretto, semper in absente..., ethnophaulism, foray and 21 more...
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Rhinestone Cowboy
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 234 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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Descriptive
The present, the future. Goals, wishes, hopes.
capricious, sericeous, sleek, flawless, charming, skilled, long-haired, versatile, beautiful, witty, fair, thin and 145 more...
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Novel Words
Concise words to sprinkle in my prose.
apropos, perception, discombobulated, adumbrate, apogee, antinomy, sanguine, glyph, taciturn, aesthetic, truncate, coffee and 143 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 997 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ennui.
ruzuzu Wait a minute. Is bilby a vampire? Dec 11, 2010
yarb Please tell me that Bill is a vampire too!
A vampire named Bill would really be the icing on this whole Buffy / Twilight vampire cake. Dec 10, 2010
Noelle Knight Now I learn from Bill that there were vampires who became afflicted with terrible remorse, or perhaps ennui, after a long life. -Charlaine Harris, Living Dead in Dallas Dec 10, 2010
madmouth how hateful all this clicking is
one is simply nauseous at it Apr 27, 2009
dimã©lion not sure if this is common knowledge in Wordie World, but "ennui" is derived from the same phrase "annoyed" is derived from; which is to say, "mihi in odio est" (Latin: "it is hateful to me"). Apr 27, 2009
bilby 1. You can click the 'more' button to feel at least displeased and discontent.
2. Go humbug Princeton.
Apr 27, 2009
madmouth Where can we apply to change the definition? "ennui" isn't boredom; it's being sick of life; it's a state of mind. Apr 27, 2009
reesetee I'd reply to your comment, but I can't be bothered. Feb 24, 2009
sionnach Happy Wordie bisesquicentennial to ennui, who would take a bow, except that it's all just so --- what's the word? Oh, who cares, really? Feb 24, 2009
dgstone Pronounced "ahn·new·ee." Gorey's Gashleycrumb Tinies was a stroke of genius.
Mar 15, 2008
Prolagus For Ennui is a growth of English root,
Though nameless in our language:--we retort
The fact for words, and let the French translate
That awful Yawn which Sleep cannot abate.
(Lord Byron) Mar 12, 2008
oroboros Interesting to compare and contrast weltschmerz with ennui. Aug 14, 2007
sera Gotta have ennui. Aug 14, 2007
uncleosbert thank you, gustave flaubert
Jul 8, 2007
evin290 This always reminds me of the Gashleycrumb Tinies. May 20, 2007
tankexmortis Damn you nkocharh! I came here just to mention that line, thereby impressing the entire internet with my leet knowledge of counter-culture heroes. But I guess you're 51 days leeter than I.
Seriously though - best Gorey line ever. Feb 1, 2007
kamezuki Zorak: Brak, be honest now. Are you or are you not totally and completely nuts? Well?
Brak: I'm thinking!
Space Ghost: Oh, this is all so childish. So meaningless.
Brak: It's merely symptomatic of our postmodern ennui. There are no absolutes--unless you perceive our world as meaningless, when it's really your OWN freedom you detest! ... I like pork! Jan 27, 2007
nkocharh Thank you, Edward Gorey. Dec 11, 2006