meaninglessness

mean·ing·less

(mē′nĭng-lĭs)

adj.

Having no meaning or significance.

mean′ing·less·ly adv.

mean′ing·less·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.

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Noun	1.	meaninglessness - a message that seems to convey no meaning hokum, nonsense, nonsensicality, bunk subject matter, content, message, substance - what a communication that is about something is about absurdity, absurdness, ridiculousness - a message whose content is at variance with reason amphigory, nonsense verse - nonsensical writing (usually verse) balderdash, fiddle-faddle, piffle - trivial nonsense buzzword, cant - stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless repetition cobblers - nonsense; "I think that is a load of cobblers" crock - nonsense; foolish talk; "that's a crock" fa la, fal la - meaningless syllables in the refrain of a partsong gibber, gibberish - unintelligible talking unintelligibility, incoherence, incoherency - nonsense that is simply incoherent and unintelligible jabberwocky - nonsensical language (according to Lewis Carroll) mummery, flummery - meaningless ceremonies and flattery empty talk, empty words, hot air, palaver, rhetoric - loud and confused and empty talk; "mere rhetoric" rigamarole, rigmarole - a set of confused and meaningless statements schmegegge, shmegegge - (Yiddish) baloney; hot air; nonsense hooey, poppycock, stuff and nonsense, stuff - senseless talk; "don't give me that stuff" baloney, bilgewater, boloney, bosh, drool, humbug, tommyrot, tosh, twaddle, taradiddle, tarradiddle - pretentious or silly talk or writing
	2.	meaninglessness - the quality of having no value or significance; "he resented the meaninglessness of the tasks they assigned him" insignificance - the quality of having little or no significance inanity, mindlessness, pointlessness, senselessness, vacuity - total lack of meaning or ideas aimlessness, purposelessness - the quality of lacking any definite purpose meaningfulness - the quality of having great value or significance

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References in classic literature ?

One shudders at the thought of the meaninglessness of life while at the same in- stant, and if the people of the town are his people, one loves life so intensely that tears come into the eyes.

View in context

He thought how much better it was to be a dumb, unquestioning beast, or a human being conscious of his soul, than to be as he was--alone, a materialist, who saw the meaninglessness of matter and whose mind, in some manner which he did not understand, had developed a slant that made him doubt what others accepted so easily as facts.

View in context

Their life becomes meaninglessness and purposeless.

Let's fight with drugs

Now notice that Shireen is ostensibly hinting at the existential, somewhat Sartrean, aspect of life, where the inherent meaninglessness of the world perturbs philosophers and thinkers.

Beyond meaning

So, was that cavalcade of cultural bigwigs who bigged up Steinberg reading meaning where there was none--or, worse, archly teasing meaning from the very fact of meaninglessness? Again, it doesn't matter.

Linear thinking: Saul Steinberg's boldness of line made him the king of cartoonists

He discusses processes of desistance, the role of isolation in antisocial behavior, the role of powerlessness, the role of norms in reducing criminal behavior, and the need to counter meaninglessness, incorporating parts of an incarcerated man's journal throughout.

Reentry, Desistance, and the Responsibility of the State: Let Them Back In

Set in Bhopal before and after the Union Carbide tragedy, the meaninglessness of his particular sadness feels even more acute, the scorn of the doctors, friends, and family he turns to for help more understandable.

Manzoor Ahtesham: The Tale of the Missing Man

"I want to be rich to overcome the meaninglessness of life," he said in his four-minute talk.

To get rich would be glorious escape from pointless life, says young Chinese student

'It is unpleasant and detrimental and a nuisance which has evolved an anarchy like satiation for Ummah, particularly for freedom movement, as occupant factions are taking undue advantage from this meaninglessness exercise within society,' he said.

IOK people urged to forge greater unity among their ranks

Max still cannot shake the thought of the tumor and the meaninglessness of his own life--until a physical trauma forces him to accept that he is not dying of brain cancer after all and that he must rejoin the real world.

Pixley, Marcella. Ready to Fall

As Roy laments the idea of his temporary existence in his last moments of life, he expresses sadness over the meaninglessness of his unshared memories in the grand scheme of things.