Vacuity

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /væˈkjuːɪtɪ/

Definitions

1. A state of being empty or containing nothing ; the absence of mental content or intelligence
2. The quality of having a hollow space with no substance ; a blankness indicating a lack of thought or understanding
3. An emptiness or void without fill or meaning ; a condition showing absence of intellectual or emotional activity

Etymology: "Vacuity" comes from Latin "vacuitās," meaning "empty space, vacancy," and it is built from "vacuus," "empty," with the suffix "-itās" that English renders as "-ity." The Latin root "vacuus" also gave English "vacuous" and, through the same family, the word "vacuum," which is simply the neuter form of the Latin adjective used as a noun for an empty space. The chain is therefore transparent: a physical sense of "emptiness" was extended to a mental one. "Vacuous" came into English as a description of empty space and later took on the sense of a blank, unthinking expression, and "vacuity" followed the same path, moving from the idea of an unfilled space to the idea of an empty mind or an empty statement.

Synonyms: emptiness, devoidness, void, insipidity, futility

Antonyms: fullness, substance, meaning, significance, richness