vacuous

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Sunday Times asking for an example of the humour they advise, maybe a joke or two that I could pass round the pub and that would sort of snowball resulting in the exposure of Choudary and his ideas as "vacuous" - so far nothing.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. adjective Devoid of matter; empty.
  2. adjective Lacking intelligence; stupid.
  3. adjective Devoid of substance or meaning; inane: a vacuous comment.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (50)

  • Edison finally decided to apply a preliminary metallic coating of infinitesimal thinness, and accomplished this object by a remarkable process known as the vacuous deposit. —  Edison, His Life and Inventions
  • Sunday Times asking for an example of the humour they advise, maybe a joke or two that I could pass round the pub and that would sort of snowball resulting in the exposure of Choudary and his ideas as "vacuous" - so far nothing. —  The British National Party
  • This is revealed later on to be a metaphor and / or a record-keeping device; I think all involved know that literally checking at the word-level would be mostly pretty vacuous, and would miss a lot of assertions. —  Language Log
  • The laughter of Andreas grew louder and more vacuous, and when at last he heaved himself up at midnight and departed to bed, that he might take some rest against the morrow's hunt, he staggered a little in his walk But there were other hunters there whose impatience could not keep until the morrow, whose game was to be run to death that very night. —  The Historical Nights' Entertainment First Series
  • The pores of the wood being thus rendered vacuous, the hot liquid or vapors from the heating tank readily penetrate the entire substance, and thoroughly impregnate it. —  Scientific American, Volume XXIV., No. 12, March 18, 1871 A Weekly Journal of Practical Information, Art, Science, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Manufactures.
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

bemused ·  rueful ·  emotionless ·  inane ·  innocuous ·  sheepish ·  crestfallen ·  carefree ·  trite ·  vacant ·  disapprove ·  jocular
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Latin vacuus, empty; see vacuum.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = Italian vacuo (cf. Spanish vacío = Portuguese vazio, from Latin vacivus), from Latin vacuus, empty.
 

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/ˈvækjuəs/
by American Heritage

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