vacuous

American  

[vak-yoo-uhs] / ˈvæk yu əs /

adjective

1. without contents; empty.

   the vacuous air.

2. lacking in ideas or intelligence.

   a vacuous mind.

3. expressing or characterized by a lack of ideas or intelligence; inane; stupid.

   a vacuous book.

4. purposeless; idle.

   a vacuous way of life.

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vacuous British  

/ ˈvækjʊəs /

adjective

1. containing nothing; empty

2. bereft of ideas or intelligence; mindless

3. characterized by or resulting from vacancy of mind

   a vacuous gaze

4. indulging in no useful mental or physical activity; idle

5. logic maths (of an operator or expression) having no import; idle: in (x) (John is tall) the quantifier (x) is vacuous

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Other Word Forms

• nonvacuous adjective
• nonvacuously adverb
• nonvacuousness noun
• unvacuous adjective
• unvacuously adverb
• unvacuousness noun
• vacuously adverb
• vacuousness noun

Etymology

Origin of vacuous

1645–55; from Latin vacuus “empty”; -ous

Example Sentences

The few other highlights in the show are overwhelmed by a surfeit of lifeless abstractions, eye-glazing prints and vacuous conceptual works.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026

As for the music itself, while it was enough to convince some fans, the lack of actual human creative input made it sound "vacuous and pristine", she says.

From BBC • Aug. 22, 2025

These are the adult tantrums of “I know you are, but what am I?” bullies, vacuous but vicious.

From Slate • Feb. 21, 2025

The show was looking for his female counterpart, someone they originally envisioned as “a yummy mummy cupcake blogger who’s vacuous and drives a Range Rover,” Brooker says.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 2, 2025

His talk was far from vacuous and stood out sharply from the rest, several of which bore no connection to the purpose of the meeting.

From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson