Senselessness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state marked by the absence of meaning, logic, or rational thought
2. A condition where something lacks any sense or logical meaning ; a state characterized by unawareness or numbness to stimuli
3. The quality of having no understandable reason or significance ; the experience of being unconscious or not perceiving sensations

Etymology: Senselessness is a plain English formation: "senseless" with the suffix "-ness" added, which turns an adjective into a noun for the state or quality it describes. The base adjective is itself built from "sense" plus "-less," the Old English suffix meaning "without," so the whole word is a layered compound rather than a single inherited term. The noun "sense" arrived in English from Old French "sens," which came from Latin "sensus," a noun from "sentire," "to feel" or "to perceive." That original sense of physical perception is still visible in the word's older meanings, where "sense" referred to the faculties of touch, sight, hearing and so on. The "without" suffix, by contrast, descends from a Germanic root shared with words like "loose" and "lose." The suffix "-ness" is the native Germanic ending that has been used to form abstract nouns from adjectives since Old English. Put together, senselessness names the condition of lacking sense: either being without meaning or logic, or being without the perception that the senses normally supply.

Synonyms: foolishness, absurdity

Antonyms: sense, reason