meaningless

mean·ing·less
M3E1A1N1I1N1G2L1E1S1S1
/ˈmiː.nɪŋ.ləs/

adjective

Lacking meaning.

“The word "gugugu" is meaningless in English.”

Less commonScrabble 14

Meanings

adjectivemeaningless (comparative more meaningless, superlative most meaningless)

comparative more meaningless · superlative most meaningless

  1. Lacking meaning.

    The word "gugugu" is meaningless in English.

    1 more example

    As the years go by, speech reverts to childhood levels of disfluency, with more pauses, more errors, more repeated words, but even the peak years are not great: up to 8 percent of the average person’s word output consists of meaningless fillers and placeholders like um, uh and er.

    2007 August 24, William Grimes, “Uh, Lead My Rips: No More Bloopers”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2013

    Synonyms: nonsensical, senseless · Antonyms: meaningful, sensical

  2. Insignificant; not worthy of importance.

    All our efforts were ultimately meaningless.

    1 more example

    Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.

    2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 24 Aug 2013

    Synonyms: negligible, trivial, unmeaningful, hollow · Antonyms: meaningful, significant

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveLacking meaning.

adjectiveInsignificant; not worthy of importance.

More synonyms by meaning

adjectivehaving no meaning or direction or purpose

Opposite

adjectiveproducing no result or effect

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Englishmeaning
  2. Proto-Indo-European*lewh₁-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*lewHs-
  4. Proto-Germanic*leusaną
  5. Proto-Germanic*lausaz
  6. Englishmeaningless

From meaning + -less.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian безсмислен, безцелен
  • безсмислен (bezsmislen)lacking meaning
  • безцелен (bezcelen)lacking meaning
  • незначителен (neznačitelen)insignificant
Catalan sense sentit
  • sense sentitlacking meaning
Czech bezvýznamný
  • bezvýznamnýlacking meaning
Danish betydningsløs
  • betydningsløslacking meaning
Dutch zinloos, betekenisloos
  • zinlooslacking meaning
  • betekenislooslacking meaning
Esperanto sensignifa, ventaĵa
  • sensignifalacking meaning
  • ventaĵainsignificant
Estonian mõttetu
  • mõttetulacking meaning
Finnish merkityksetön, mitätön
  • merkityksetönlacking meaning
  • mitätöninsignificant
  • merkityksetöninsignificant
French dénué de sens, dépourvu de sens
  • dénué de senslacking meaning
  • dépourvu de senslacking meaning
German sinnlos, bedeutungslos
  • sinnloslacking meaning
  • bedeutungsloslacking meaning
Greek χωρίς σημασία
  • χωρίς σημασία (chorís simasía)lacking meaning
Hindi अर्थहीन, निरर्थक
  • अर्थहीन (arthhīn)lacking meaning
  • निरर्थक (nirarthak)lacking meaning
  • तुच्छ (tucch)insignificant
  • नगण्य (nagaṇya)insignificant
Irish gan chiall
  • gan chialllacking meaning
Italian senza senso, privo di significato
  • senza sensolacking meaning
  • privo di significatolacking meaning
  • insignificantelacking meaning
  • senza capo né codalacking meaning
Japanese 無意味な, つまらない
  • 無意味な (muimi na)lacking meaning
  • つまらない (tsumaranai)lacking meaning
  • 取るに足らない (toru ni taranai)lacking meaning
Latin vānus
  • vānusinsignificant
Latvian bezjēdzīgs
  • bezjēdzīgslacking meaning
Lithuanian nereikšmingas, bereikšmis
  • nereikšmingaslacking meaning
  • bereikšmislacking meaning
Māori hakihakiā
  • hakihakiālacking meaning
Norwegian Bokmål meningsløs, meiningsløs
  • meningsløslacking meaning
  • meiningsløslacking meaning
  • meningslauslacking meaning
  • meiningslauslacking meaning
Polish bez znaczenia, bezsensowny
  • bez znaczenialacking meaning
  • bezsensownylacking meaning
Portuguese insignificante, sem sentido
  • insignificantelacking meaning
  • sem sentidolacking meaning
Russian бессмы́сленный
  • бессмы́сленный (bessmýslennyj)lacking meaning
Spanish sin significado, insignificativo
  • sin significadolacking meaning
  • insignificativolacking meaning
  • insignificativoinsignificant
Swedish betydelselös
  • betydelselöslacking meaning
Thai ไม่มีความหมาย, ไร้ความหมาย
  • ไม่มีความหมาย (mai-mii-kwaam-mǎai)lacking meaning
  • ไร้ความหมาย (rái-kwaam-mǎai)lacking meaning
Turkish anlamsız, boş
  • anlamsızlacking meaning
  • boşlacking meaning
  • manasızlacking meaning
  • saçmalacking meaning
Ukrainian безглуздий
  • безглуздий (bezhluzdyj)lacking meaning
Vietnamese vô nghĩa
  • vô nghĩalacking meaning
Welsh diystyr
  • diystyrlacking meaning
Cite this entry
APA

meaningless. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/meaningless

MLA

“meaningless.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/meaningless. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “meaningless,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/meaningless.

Source: meaningless on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.