nullnessn.
/ˈnʌlnəs/, U.S. /ˈnəlnəs/ The state or condition of being null; invalidity, nihility, nothingness.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > non-existence > [noun]
noughtOE
unbeing1435
non-beingc1443
nullity?1573
non esse1585
not-beinga1586
unexistence1593
nihilhood1602
non-essence?1605
inexistence1623
never-being1633
nonentity1643
non-existence1646
no-being1651
inexistency1660
nihility1678
cipherhooda1680
vacuitya1711
nothingness1766
nihilism1856
thinglessness1874
not-ness1933
nullness1949
1949 E. Bowen Heat of Day xvii. 301 The coming of winter to a stop had been most felt in the absolute nullness of night.
1959 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 251 521 The wave-like character will appear in the intrinsically null properties of these metrics... The nullness will become apparent from the physical properties of the metrics.
1967 Punch 22 Nov. 795/2 This feeling of organic injury is caused by..an utter nullness of non-taste, a denatured, defused..triviality.
1993 Ann. Rev. Ecol. & Systematics 24 308 The truth about history cannot ever be known, but we need not become nihilists as a result. The possibility of excess exists in any intellectual wave, and although an excess of ‘nullness’ is not yet apparent, the danger of it can be anticipated.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1949