emptiness

[ emp-tee-nis ]

noun

1. the fact or state of containing nothing or of being without the usual or appropriate contents:

   All morning the emptiness of the cupboard, the thought of the house without even tea or butter, had been troubling him.

2. the fact or state of being without human occupants or human activity:

   A broad, slanting patch of sunshine cut across the gloomy, lifeless emptiness of the church.

3. empty or barren space; void:

   If we leave today we can reach the outpost by the 27th—through another 800 miles of flat, windy emptiness.

4. the fact or quality of being without force or effect; hollowness:

   Continued support for brutal regimes reveals the hypocrisy and emptiness of the administration’s professed goal of spreading democracy.

5. the quality or feeling of being without significance or purpose; meaninglessness:

   In the 21st century we are more likely to experience aimlessness and emptiness than guilt.

6. the fact or quality of being unoccupied by useful work or activity; idleness:

   An active man, not yet sixty, he was unused to the emptiness of his days after he retired.

7. the fact or quality of being completely spent or drained emotionally by trauma:

   Many women describe a feeling of numbness and emptiness following a miscarriage.

Other Words From

• self-emp·ti·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of emptiness¹

empty ( def ) + -ness ( def )

Example Sentences

“It brings a small comfort to know he was taken doing what he loved most, but his absence leaves a vast emptiness,” his nephews wrote.

From Los Angeles Times

Taddeo’s book and the series do something too rare in literature and TV, centering the stories of women’s desire and everything encapsulated in that idea – bliss, emptiness, joy, agony.

From Salon

She knew Titterington not for who he was but for the emptiness he left behind.

From Los Angeles Times

There is a dreary emptiness around the ballpark.

From Los Angeles Times

It linked to a short film: a 20-minute polemic against the emptiness of modern life, a lament for a vanished world of hierarchies and heroism.

From BBC

Related Words

• desolation
• vacuum