nothingness

English

Etymology

From nothing +‎ -ness.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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Noun

nothingness (usually uncountable, plural nothingnesses)

1. The state of nonexistence; the condition of being nothing.
   • 1818, John Keats, “Book I”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] [T. Miller] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 3, lines 1–5:

     A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness; but still will keep / A bower quiet for us, and a sleep / Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

   • 2014 April 12, Michael Inwood, “Martin Heidegger: the philosopher who fell for Hitler [print version: Hitler's philosopher]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)‎^[1], London, page R11:

     In 1928 [Martin] Heidegger succeeded [Edmund] Husserl to take a chair at Freiburg and in his inaugural lecture made a pronouncement that earned him a reputation as an archetypal metaphysician with his claim that our awareness of people as a whole depends on our experience of dread in the face of nothingness.

2. A void; an emptiness.
3. The quality of inconsequentiality; the lack of significance.

Synonyms

• (state of nonexistence): nihility; See also Thesaurus:inexistence

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "state of nonexistence"): existence; See also Thesaurus:existence

Related terms

• do-nothingness
• good-for-nothingness
• know-nothingness

 

Translations

state of nonexistence; the condition of being nothing

• Bulgarian: небитие (bg) n (nebitie)
• Catalan: no-res (ca) m
• Finnish: olemattomuus (fi)
• French: néant (fr) m
• German: Nichtvorhandensein n, Nichts (de) n
• Hungarian: nem létezés
• Italian: nulla (it) m
• Macedonian: неби́тие n (nebítie)
• Norwegian: ingenting (no)

  Bokmål: intet (no) n

• Polish: nicość (pl) f
• Portuguese: vacuidade (pt) f
• Russian: тлен (ru) m (tlen) (poetic)
• Turkish: hiçlik (tr)

void; emptiness

• Bulgarian: нищожност (bg) f (ništožnost)
• Finnish: tyhjyys (fi)
• French: vide (fr) m
• German: Nichts (de) n, Leere (de) f
• Hungarian: semmi (hu), űr (hu), üresség (hu)
• Macedonian: пра́знина f (práznina), пра́зност f (práznost)
• Portuguese: vazio (pt) m
• Turkish: boşluk (tr)

quality of inconsequentiality; lacking in significance

• Bulgarian: нищожество (bg) n (ništožestvo)
• Finnish: merkityksettömyys, mitättömyys (fi)
• German: Bedeutungslosigkeit (de) f
• Hungarian: semmiség (hu), jelentéktelenség (hu), lényegtelenség (hu), feleslegesség (hu)
• Macedonian: ништо́жество n (ništóžestvo), ни́штожност f (níštožnost), безна́чајност f (beznáčajnost)
• Turkish: anlamsızlık (tr), bilinçsizlik (tr), şuursuzluk (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} nada (es) f