meaningless
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
having no purpose or importance in a particular situation.
lacking significance, purpose, or value; often used to describe actions or lives that feel empty.
Simple“Without a clear goal, the extra work felt completely meaningless to the team.”
In context“The philosopher argued that existence is inherently meaningless unless the individual actively constructs their own sense of purpose through creative action.”
UsageOften follows 'feel' or 'seem' to describe a subjective emotional state.
SynonymsAntonyms - 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
having no clear message or information that you can understand.
lacking semantic content or logical coherence; describing data or language that conveys no information.
Simple“The computer error produced a long string of meaningless numbers and symbols.”
In context“The witness provided a series of meaningless statements that failed to clarify his whereabouts on the night of the incident.”
UsageCommonly used to describe data, statistics, or political rhetoric.
SynonymsAntonyms
“James Cartland and Son was a Birmingham metalworkers turning out umbrella stands, crocodile-shaped inkwells, shelf brackets shaped like sea monsters and “pharaonic letterboxes embossed with meaningless hieroglyphs”.”
“Meaningless boredom is more likely to result in sadness, loneliness, a sense that time is dragging, and a desire to disengage.”
From meaning + -less.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.