Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Futility; triviality; something trifling or nonsensical.

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

  • noun rare Futility; trifling talk or behavior; drollery.

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

  • noun futility; trifling talk or behaviour; drollery

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin nugacitas, from nugax, -acis, trifling.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word nugacity.

Examples

  • Solomon appeared vexed, as he replied — “I seriously lament that my nescience in the common terms of conversation should render it necessary to apply to a nomenclature; but my fellow-students and myself have always had a nolition to enter into nugacity, and on every subject aspire to express ourselves in ornate language.”

    Lovers and Friends; or, Modern Attachments 1821

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • from AWAD:

    noun: Triviality; futility.

    From Latin nugax (trifling), from nugari (to trifle).

    "For many, the Beachcomber column has been an oasis of nugacity in an otherwise worthy landscape."

    Beachcomber; The Daily Express (London, UK); Jan 9, 2006.

    August 13, 2008