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meaningless

[ mee-ning-lis ]

/ ˈmi nɪŋ lɪs /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR meaningless ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

without meaning, significance, purpose, or value; purposeless; insignificant: a meaningless reply; a meaningless existence.

Origin of meaningless

First recorded in 1790–1800; meaning + -less

OTHER WORDS FROM meaningless

mean·ing·less·ly, adverb mean·ing·less·ness, noun

Words nearby meaningless

meandrous, meanie, meaning, meaningful, meaningful relationship, meaningless, meanly, meanness, means, means grass, means of production

Example sentences from the Web for meaningless

If even one of those four people is somebody that didn't actually get the vaccine, the results are meaningless.

Uh Oh: Ebola Vaccine Trials Stop |Leigh Cowart |December 19, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
We are at a dead end in a meaningless war, and we are paying the bill for this fighting every day.

Local Truces Are Syria’s Sad Little Pieces of Peace |Joshua Hersh |November 18, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
It is meaningless, that is, except to the meddlers who achieve it.

America’s Meddlers Are Our Worst Enemies |Stefan Beck |October 3, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
“I have come to realize that activism in an al Qaida-held area not only is deadly, but meaningless,” he concluded.

Goodbye to the Last of Syria’s Good Guys |Joshua Hersh |October 2, 2014 |DAILY BEAST

The result is that the term Russian River Valley on a label is meaningless.

Napa’s Earthquake Is Not The Only Thing Shaking The Vineyards |Clive Irving |August 31, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Who could care for the pointless repartees of defunct Grand Dukes, or the meaningless caprices of long-buried Archduchesses?

Diary And Notes Of Horace Templeton, Esq. |Charles James Lever
He was hardly expected, because promises are meaningless phrases in the mouths of Dartmoor folk.

Furze the Cruel |John Trevena
These lists of unfamiliar names look like the dbris of a quarry—hard, meaningless, and to us useless.

The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Joshua |William Garden Blaikie
A secret compound with a meaningless title is presumptively a fraud.

Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why |Martha M. Allen
These words are said to have been uttered when the English had been discovered, but then they would have been meaningless.

The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2) |Anatole France

British Dictionary definitions for meaningless

meaningless

/ (ˈmiːnɪŋlɪs) /

adjective

futile or empty of meaning

Derived forms of meaningless

meaninglessly, adverb meaninglessness, noun