NOTHINGNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does nothingness mean? 

• NOTHINGNESS (noun)
  The noun NOTHINGNESS has 2 senses:

1. the state of nonexistence

2. empty rhetoric or insincere or exaggerated talk

  Familiarity information: NOTHINGNESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NOTHINGNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of nonexistence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

nihility; nothingness; nullity; void

Hypernyms ("nothingness" is a kind of...):

nonentity; nonexistence (the state of not existing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "nothingness"):

thin air (nowhere to be found in a giant void)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Empty rhetoric or insincere or exaggerated talk

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

idle words; jazz; malarkey; malarky; nothingness; wind

Context example:

don't give me any of that jazz

Hypernyms ("nothingness" is a kind of...):

talk; talking (an exchange of ideas via conversation)

 Context examples 

The insipidity, and yet the noise—the nothingness, and yet the self-importance of all those people!

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I pulled till I burst open the ends of all my fingers; and while I pulled, the flying-jib and staysail split their cloths apart and thundered into nothingness.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It dawned upon her gradually that the world was being picked to pieces, and put together on new and, according to the talkers, on infinitely better principles than before, that religion was in a fair way to be reasoned into nothingness, and intellect was to be the only God.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Such were Elizabeth Elliot's sentiments and sensations; such the cares to alloy, the agitations to vary, the sameness and the elegance, the prosperity and the nothingness of her scene of life; such the feelings to give interest to a long, uneventful residence in one country circle, to fill the vacancies which there were no habits of utility abroad, no talents or accomplishments for home, to occupy.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Her disposition was naturally easy and indolent, like Lady Bertram's; and a situation of similar affluence and do-nothingness would have been much more suited to her capacity than the exertions and self-denials of the one which her imprudent marriage had placed her in.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She had never been staying there before, without being struck by it, or without wishing that other Elliots could have her advantage in seeing how unknown, or unconsidered there, were the affairs which at Kellynch Hall were treated as of such general publicity and pervading interest; yet, with all this experience, she believed she must now submit to feel that another lesson, in the art of knowing our own nothingness beyond our own circle, was become necessary for her; for certainly, coming as she did, with a heart full of the subject which had been completely occupying both houses in Kellynch for many weeks, she had expected rather more curiosity and sympathy than she found in the separate but very similar remark of Mr and Mrs Musgrove: So, Miss Anne, Sir Walter and your sister are gone; and what part of Bath do you think they will settle in?

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)