Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Lacking sense or substance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Empty; void; especially, void of sense or intelligence; senseless; silly.
  • Synonyms Frivolous, puerile, trifling.
  • noun That which is void or empty; void space; emptiness; vacuity.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun rare That which is void or empty.
  • adjective Without contents; empty; void of sense or intelligence; purposeless; pointless; characterless; useless.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Lacking sense or meaning (often implying, "to the point of boredom or annoyance").
  • noun That which is void or empty.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective devoid of intelligence

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin inānis, empty, lacking sense.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin inānis ("empty, vain, useless").

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Examples

Comments

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  • "Generation was decreed and the being who was generated was willed as the "child of duty," namely, as one who must undertake and nourish the supernatural element of his stock and the liberation of the ancestor, and who must receive and pass on to future generations strength, life, and stability. Today, all this has become an inane fancy; men, instead of being in control of sex are controlled by it and wander about like drunkards without having the least cluse as to what takes place in the course of their embraces"

    - Julius Evola in "The Revolt against the Modern World"

    March 23, 2009

  • I like the way the AHD definition goes straight to the share-house.

    April 14, 2015