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inane

UK/ɪˈneɪn/US/ɪˈneɪn/
adjectiveC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,035 of 15,258neutral

Inane means empty of sense or meaning. Words that fill the air and say nothing.

It is a criticism and a fairly withering one, since calling a question inane means it was not worth asking. It attaches to remarks, grins, chatter and questions. An inane grin is one with nothing behind it. The word is a shade more contemptuous than silly and a good deal more so than pointless. The noun inanity means both the quality and an individual empty remark.

Definitions of inane

  1. 1adjectiveinaneSilly and completely lacking in sense.C1

    “He asked one inane question after another.”

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    inānis — empty, vain, useless

  2. English, today

    inane

From Latin inānis (“empty, vain, useless”), of unknown origin.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 11 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

inane in the wild

  • By 1941, a Newsweek article referred to the song as "the next inane novelty song to sweep the country".

    I'm a Little Teapot

  • You can find out the answers to these and other inane questions on this special... 'experts' on the subject include Dr.

    Blondes vs. Brunettes

  • Conan Doyle hoped that this would be his most successful novel to date, but the novel was widely panned for being banal and inane.

    A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.