Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The condition or quality of being inane.
- n. Something empty of meaning or sense.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state of being inane. Emptiness; vacuity.
- n. Mental vacuity; senselessness; silliness; frivolity.
- n. Hollowness; worthlessness.
- n. An instance of frivolity or vanity: as, the inanities of his conversation.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable The property of being inane, of lacking material of interest or satisfaction, emptiness.
- n. Something that is inane.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Inanition; void space; vacuity; emptiness.
- n. Lack of seriousness; aimlessness; frivolity.
- n. An inane, useless thing or pursuit; a vanity; a silly object; -- chiefly in pl..
WordNet 3.0
- n. total lack of meaning or ideas
Examples
“A stern, deep voice which utters an egotistical inanity is still stern and deep (deep sounding, anyway).”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Remembering Justice Stevens as a Boss
“But what makes these letters rise above inanity is the portrait they provide of a wartime capital cut adrift from moral bearings.”
“What you call inanity is yet another demonstration of a subject you have no clue about.”
“If putting up with your inanity is one of the conditions of eternal life, I think I’ll take my chances with mortality.”
Think Progress » Brownback Holds Up Drawing Of Embryo, Asks ‘Are You Going To Kill Me?’
“The House voted 55-42 along party lines to strip Daniel G. LeBlanc from a measure confirming Mr. Kaine's 34 agency head appointments and his chief of staff. linkOf course, Governor Kaine reacts with what can only be described as inanity:”
“Then he recalled the inanity and exacting requests of the great lady, and guessed how her reader was able to so boldly play his annoying trick.”
“And I'd even go so far as to say that nothing was more political than this sovereign and slightly unreasonable decision, qualified by some we shall be kind enough not to mention here as an "inanity" or a "crime" or a bet that was "lost in advance", to craft something European through the shared efforts of two national workshops.”
“It's very easy to laugh at this kind of inanity (and insanity) that Melanie describes.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“I know, I know, it was totally ridiculous to run what was in effect a marketing campaign for the book and then not have it available - but that's the kind of inanity that happens in the publishing business.”
“Here, one would have thought, is a worthy alternative to what Sam Leith refers to the "inanity" of much contemporary tv.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘inanity’.
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Bike Snob'isms
words I saw while reading the Bike Snob
helment, scranus, podium, sangue borse, hipster, dandydom, effete, douchebag, douchebags, Lobweh, Portland, brakeless track bike and 318 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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GRE Study guide
Going through the Magoosh website, words I pulled from the verbal section. 2012.
magnanimous, correlate, anglicized, simulacrum, tantamount, obsequiousness, subterfuge, vehement, vociferous, benign, concomitant, veracity and 83 more...
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Outwardly secondary
vitiate, compenetrate, ingeminate, prolific, philoprogenitive, diaphaneity, diaphanous, saturnine, tepidness, inanity, knavery, adumbrate and 2 more...
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Signs of madness
See stimthought
talking to yourself, arguing with your..., losing an argumen..., attempting to enu..., hair on the palms..., insisting that yo..., telling jokes to ..., inanity, looking for hair ..., moving your lips ..., smug in knowing s..., disbelieving that... and 6 more...
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ymmez22's Words
despotic, fiefdom, demagogue, vignette, chavvy, esoteric, stalwarts, unpalatable, eradicated, rapacious, repugnant, zeitgeist and 89 more...
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MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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Good for Academics
Gahh!! Study!
supplant, usurp, finagle, winnow, draconian, abut, collude, swindle, objectify, incite, decadent, obstinate and 327 more...
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kirstenio's Words
lascivious, transcendant, phantasmagoria, salacious, beatitude, solitude, pseudo, pretentious, inanity, sublimation, clobber, obscurity and 186 more...
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Wenderful's Whirled World of Blurred ...
Lexicon I likez... in no order whatsoever.
omnivalence, cerebration, sprachgefühl, schadenfreude, rutabaga, septuagenarian, foible, vainglorious, leviathan, remunerative, catastrophize, ancillary and 182 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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GRE vocab
martinet, churlish, polyglot, aplomb, dissembler, histrionics, prevarication, ignominy, impugn, fastidious, trenchant, perfunctory and 155 more...
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My GRE
concomitant, mendacity, corollary, mandate, ascertain, exacerbate, substantiate, perennial, exemplify, hegemony, acrimonious, repertoire and 653 more...
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Words I Love But Don't Use Enough
Thanks to all you Wordies out there flinging new words at my head. This one's for you.
phascolomian, flammulated, pelagic, avuncular, spondulicks, frippery, wyvern, stramash, cack-handed, bellicosity, infrared reflecto..., contumeliously and 106 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Lolita
Words compiled while reading Lolita
lolita, solecism, cognomen, etiolate, tendresse, expiatory, filch, paroxysm, arabesques, sibilant, manque, uranist and 181 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for inanity.
chained_bear It's much like saying, "The United States should invade Canada. I believe I voice the sentiments of 75 per cent of the people of upper Mongolia." Apr 28, 2008
reesetee *facepalm* Apr 28, 2008
bilby ROFLWISIS
(Rolling On Floor Laughing With Innnards Spilling Indecorously Sideways). Apr 28, 2008
chained_bear “The United States should approve the annexation of Hawaii. I believe I voice the sentiments of 75 per cent of the people of Ohio.�?
—Governor Asa Bushnell (Ohio)
(Los Angeles Times, January 25, 1898)
Apr 28, 2008