meaninglessnessn.
/ˈmiːnɪŋlᵻsnᵻs/, U.S. /ˈminɪŋlᵻsnᵻs/ The state or condition of being meaningless; absence of meaning or purpose.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > absence of meaning > [noun]
insolidity1578
emptiness1579
insignificancy1651
no-meaning1672
insignificance1754
inexpression1796
inexpressiveness1815
vacuousness1816
unmeaningness1825
unmeaning1839
pointlessness1845
non-significance1846
meaninglessness1853
unsuggestiveness1858
unexpressiveness1885
nonsense1942
1853 J. Ruskin Stones of Venice III. i. 26 The modern decorative system..united the meaninglessness of the veined marble with the evanescence of the fresco.
1894 H. Drummond Lowell Lect. Ascent of Man 436 It is not the monotony of life which destroys men, but its pointlessness..its meaninglessness crushes them.
1920 D. H. Lawrence Women in Love vii. 83 It was a terrible face, void, peaked, abstracted almost into meaninglessness by the weight of sensation beneath.
1969 F. R. Leavis in Times Lit. Suppl. 29 May 569/1 The problem..is one of cultural disinheritance and the meaninglessness of the technologico-Benthamite world.
1991 Sydney Morning Herald 23 Feb. 48/7 This follow-up is a thin volume of essays on the meaning, and meaninglessness, of life.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1853