SUPERFICIALITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does superficiality mean? 

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

1. lack of depth of knowledge or thought or feeling

2. shallowness in terms of affecting only surface layers of something

  Familiarity information: SUPERFICIALITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUPERFICIALITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lack of depth of knowledge or thought or feeling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

shallowness; superficiality

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

depth (degree of psychological or intellectual profundity)

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

glibness; slickness (a kind of fluent easy superficiality)

sciolism (pretentious superficiality of knowledge)

Antonym:

profundity (intellectual depth; penetrating knowledge; keen insight; etc)

Derivation:

superficial (concerned with or comprehending only what is apparent or obvious; not deep or penetrating emotionally or intellectually)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Shallowness in terms of affecting only surface layers of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

he ignored the wound because of its superficiality

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

shallowness (the quality of lacking physical depth)

Derivation:

superficial (of, affecting, or being on or near the surface)

 Context examples 

I was surprised, considering the fierce struggle in the forecastle, at the superficiality of his hurts, and I pride myself that I dressed them dexterously.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

When we went in, and I had removed her bonnet and coat, I took her on my knee; kept her there an hour, allowing her to prattle as she liked: not rebuking even some little freedoms and trivialities into which she was apt to stray when much noticed, and which betrayed in her a superficiality of character, inherited probably from her mother, hardly congenial to an English mind.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)