vacuous

V4A1C3U1O1U1S1
/ˈvækju.əs/

adjective

Empty; void; lacking meaningful content.

“vacuous remark”

Similar
vacuitousemptyvacantempty as a pauper's purseempty as the tomb on Eastercleanleertoom
OriginLatin vacuus →
UncommonScrabble 12
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

adjectivevacuous (comparative more vacuous, superlative most vacuous)

comparative more vacuous · superlative most vacuous

  1. Empty; void; lacking meaningful content.

    vacuous remark

    3 more examples

    vacuous expression

    The movie was criticized for its vacuous dialogue.

    She gave him a vacuous smile.

    Synonyms: vacuitous, empty, vacant, empty, empty as a pauper's purse, empty as the tomb on Easter, clean, leer

  2. Showing a lack of thought or intelligence; vacant.

    Near-synonym: fatuous

    Synonyms: empty-headed, brainless, addlebrained, addlepated, airheaded, bee-brained, beef-witted, soft

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveEmpty; void; lacking meaningful content.

Similar
vacuitousemptyvacantemptyempty as a pauper's purseempty as the tomb on Eastercleanleertoomunfilledvacantvacuumlikevoid

adjectiveShowing a lack of thought or intelligence; vacant.

Similar
empty-headedbrainlessaddlebrainedaddlepatedairheadedbee-brainedbeef-wittedsoftbeefheadedbeetle-headedbirdbrainedblockheadedBoeotianboneheadedboofheadedbraindeadbrainlessbubbleheadedbuffle-headedbullet-headed

More synonyms by meaning

adjectivedevoid of intelligence or thought

Similar
mindlessvacantfoolish

adjectivedevoid of significance or force

Similar
emptyhollowmeaninglessnonmeaningful

adjectivedevoid of matter

Similar
empty
Also see
cleanemptyempty as a pauper's purseempty as the tomb on easterfatuousfoolishhollowinsipidleermeaninglessmindlessnonmeaningfulstupidtoomunfilledvacantvacuitousvacuumlikevaguevoid

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Latinvacuus“empty, vacant”
  2. Englishvacuous

Learned borrowing from Latin vacuus (“empty, vacant”) + -ous.

More words from Latin

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Arabic فَارِغ
  • فَارِغ (fāriḡ)lacking meaningful content
Bulgarian празен, безмислен
  • празен (prazen)lacking meaningful content
  • безмислен (bezmislen)showing a lack of thought
Catalan vacu
  • vaculacking meaningful content
Dutch nietszeggend
  • nietszeggendlacking meaningful content
Finnish merkityksetön, ontto
  • merkityksetönlacking meaningful content
  • onttolacking meaningful content
  • tyhjälacking meaningful content
French niais, niais
  • niaislacking meaningful content
  • niaisshowing a lack of thought
German leer, nichtssagend
  • leerlacking meaningful content
  • nichtssagendlacking meaningful content
  • gedankenlosshowing a lack of thought
Hungarian üres
  • üreslacking meaningful content
Polish próżny, pusty
  • próżnylacking meaningful content
  • pustylacking meaningful content
  • bezmyślnyshowing a lack of thought
  • tępyshowing a lack of thought
Portuguese vazio
  • vaziolacking meaningful content
Russian пусто́й, пустопорожний
  • пусто́й (pustój)lacking meaningful content
  • пустопорожний (pustoporožnij)lacking meaningful content
  • бессмы́сленный (bessmýslennyj)lacking meaningful content
Scottish Gaelic faoin, faoin
  • faoinlacking meaningful content
  • faoinshowing a lack of thought
Spanish vacuo
  • vacuolacking meaningful content
Swedish tom, andefattig
  • tomlacking meaningful content
  • andefattiglacking meaningful content
Welsh gwag, penwan
  • gwaglacking meaningful content
  • penwanshowing a lack of thought
Cite this entry
APA

vacuous. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vacuous

MLA

“vacuous.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vacuous. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “vacuous,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vacuous.

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