vacuousness


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vac·u·ous

 (văk′yo͞o-əs)
adj.
1.
a. Lacking intelligence; stupid or empty-headed.
b. Devoid of substance or meaning; vapid or inane: a vacuous comment.
c. Devoid of expression; vacant: a vacuous stare. See Synonyms at empty.
2. Lacking serious purpose or occupation; idle: "A sleepless night was followed by a vacuous day" (Zon Ferraris).
3. Archaic Devoid of matter; empty: vacuous space.

[From Latin vacuus, empty; see vacuum.]

vac′u·ous·ly adv.
vac′u·ous·ness n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.vacuousness - indicative of or marked by mental vacuity and an absence of ideas; "the vacuousness of her face belied her feelings"
stupidity - a poor ability to understand or to profit from experience
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

vacuousness

noun
Total lack of ideas, meaning, or substance:
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive ?
Eliot's image of the hollow men and the stuffed men might evoke imaginative reflection on that which transcends superficiality, dullness and vacuousness. The power of imagery begins in Eliot's exploration of the early Twentieth Century and in his critique of the emptiness and pain of western culture in the post-World War One period (Spears Brooker, 1994; Childs, 2001; Kaveney, 2014).
The "sensitivity" of the multi-culturalist is an index not of moral refinement but of moral vacuousness. Multiculturalism is a moral intoxicant; its thrill centers around the emotion of superior virtue; its hangover subsists on a diet of nescience and blighted "good intentions."
The critical approach the book advances, which is shaped by a Foucauldian notion of problematization, exposes the vacuousness and hypocrisy in the moralistic stances commonly adopted by contemporary liberal governments.
It is no coincidence that one of the most important theological statements made in Bangkok, despite everything, is largely due to the cooperation of a German theologian, a theologian who does not lose himself in the vacuousness of a theology universally applicable but makes space in it for the problems of the present times.
He claims to discover it in the views of "moral philosophers," for whom "the best argument for the legitimacy of our laws (or of any particular law L) is a showing that the laws are morally justified or that L in particular is morally justified." (53) We have to take that thesis at face value because Waldron doesn't tell us who those moral philosophers are or how they defend that position against what any number of their fellow philosophers would have to recognise as its patent vacuousness. After all, since when is "morally justified" facially more perspicuous than "legitimate"?
vacuousness, providing neither guidance nor constraint on the
The vacuousness of the EU's prescriptions returned to haunt Greece once more this week, though, when the prospect of a Grexit returned to the agenda.
The works that do withstand the proposed research methodology are powerful and compelling examples that validate the industry in which they circulate against claims of vacuousness. The implication of this research demonstration is therefore important with respect to the study of popular music because it represents a means for the validation, celebration, and exemplification of high quality in a less opinion-based fashion.
However, the last twelve lean years since the outbreak of the Darfur people's revolution have demonstrated the emptiness and vacuousness of that argument.
This is often seen as an aspect of the weakness or vacuousness of the state, sometimes in a nearly apocalyptic horizon.
The inevitable superficiality of this debate will rightly condemn the party to impotence, at least until the Tories contrive such a debacle as to put Labour back in business, despite its vacuousness."