inane

¹inane

adj \i-ˈnān\

inan·erinan·est

Definition of INANE

1

: empty, insubstantial

2

: lacking significance, meaning, or point : silly <inane comments>

— inane·ly adverb

— inane·ness \-ˈnān-nəs\ noun

Examples of INANE

1. I quickly tired of their inane comments.
2. The film's plot is inane and full of clichés.
3. All around us swirls the battering of gargantuan films, Styrofoam epics with megatons of special effects, gleefully inane adolescent films, horror films that really are horrible. —Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic, 15 Mar. 2004
4. The surfeit of home runs is a sop to all the Philistines who require inane diversions like programmed races between electronic dots on the scoreboard to make it through a two-hit shutout. —Nicholas Dawidoff, New York Times Magazine, 4 Apr. 1999
5. Though feminist leaders are mostly aligned with those sentiments, they can't separate their quest for economic equity from the inane political correctness of their extremist sisters. —Mary Matalin, Newsweek, 25 Oct. 1993

Origin of INANE

Latin inanis

First Known Use: 1662

Related to INANE

Synonyms: empty, meaningless, pointless, senseless

Antonyms: meaningful, significant

Related Words: frivolous, inconsequential, inconsiderable, insignificant, little, minor, negligible, slight, trifling, trivial, unimportant; absurd, asinine, balmy, brainless, crackpot, crazy, cuckoo, daffy, daft, dotty, empty-headed, fatuous, foolish, half-witted, harebrained, insane, jerky, kooky (also kookie), loony (also looney), lunatic, mad, mindless, nonsensical, nutty, preposterous, sappy, silly, simpleminded, stupid, tomfool, unintelligent, unwise, wacky (also whacky), weak-minded, witless, zany; irrational, unreasonable; aimless, haphazard, purposeless

Near Antonyms: eloquent, expressive, pregnant, revealing, suggestive, telling; logical, rational, reasonable, valid; consequential, eventful, important, key, major, momentous, substantial, weighty

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See Synonym Discussion at insipid