MEANING
1. The state of containing nothing or having no people, objects, or activity within a space.
2. A painful feeling of having no emotional fullness, connection, or purpose in life.
3. The absence of real meaning, sincerity, or substance in words, actions, or appearances.
Use it for
describing an unoccupied room; making an abandoned landscape feel empty; contrasting a former crowd with present silence; drawing attention to a space with nothing in itSeparates unoccupied space, emotional lack, and lack of real meaning instead of merging all three into sadness. Writing functions: Emptiness / Absence.
Words that belong together
- the emptiness of a room
- vast emptiness
- the emptiness of a landscape
On the page
The emptiness of the nursery became apparent only after they removed the cot.
He called into the emptiness beyond the broken doors.
The visitors left, and an unfamiliar emptiness settled over the rest of her day.
He could complete every task and still feel the emptiness of a life no longer shared.
Only afterward did she recognize the emptiness of his condolences.
Word forms
- Base
- emptiness
Usage notes
Usually uncountable: emptiness; a sense of emptiness. A particular expanse or experience can be described as an emptiness in literary prose; avoid routine plural emptinesses. Register: neutral. Commonness: common (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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