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Definition of inane
inaner
;inanest
1 : empty, insubstantial
2 : lacking significance, meaning, or point : silly inane comments
inanely
adverbFrom the M-W Editors
inane was our Word of the Day on 02/19/2010. Hear the podcast!
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Examples of inane in a Sentence
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
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
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
I quickly tired of their inane comments.
The film's plot is inane and full of clichés.
Recent Examples of inane from the Web
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Keep inane conversations with strangers to an absolute minimum.
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Not only did the Knicks never win more than 32 games in Jackson's tenure, but his inane insistence on being outspoken against stars like LeBron James and Anthony did immense damage to the way the franchise is viewed by the player community.
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There are a few videos of my brother and me, inane footage of the two of us running around the yard at various ages, sometimes fighting and sometimes actually enjoying each other's company.
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Finally, deregulation of inane child care regulations, such as Washington, D.C.'s new requirement that child care workers obtain college degrees, will make work economically practical.
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Bumptious reporters shove microphones into faces and ask inane questions, and cameras are trained interminably on fires and auto accidents.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'inane'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of inane
Latin inanis
Synonym Discussion of inane
Examples of inane in a Sentence
And thus likewise we sometimes speak of place, distance, or bulk in the great inane beyond the confines of the world. —John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 1689
Can inane Be Used As a Noun?
The adjective "inane" is now most commonly encountered as a synonym of "shallow" or "silly." But when this word first entered the English language in the early 17th century, it was used to mean "empty" or "insubstantial." It was this older sense that gave rise, in the latter half of the 17th century, to the noun "inane," which often serves as a poetic reference to the void of space ("the illimitable inane," "the limitless inane," "the incomprehensible inane"). This noun usage has not always been viewed in a favorable light. Samuel Johnson, in his Dictionary of the English Language (1755), says of "inane" that "it is used licentiously for a substantive," which in current English means that it is used as a noun without regard to the rules.
Origin and Etymology of inane
see 1inane
INANE Defined for English Language Learners
INANE Defined for Kids
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for inane Spanish Central: Translation of inane Nglish: Translation of inane for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of inane for Arabic speakers
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