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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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Virtual assistants field answers to nearly any inane question.
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Virtual assistants field answers to nearly any inane question.
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But when a particular moment or exchange is at issue, the ability to pull a clip of it could end these inane allegation-and-denial cycles once and for all.
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According to the Hollywood Reporter, network execs are reassessing E!'s red-carpet coverage, which, so far, amounts to scrapping the mani cam and thinking hard about not wasting Naomi Watts's air time on inane questions about her frittata.
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No, no and no, and stop asking such inane questions.
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Boselli, who deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as one of the greatest offensive linemen of his era, has been a staunch defender of Bortles amid some incredibly inane criticism.
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In the often loud and frequently inane blah-blah-blah that is radio, Milt Rosenberg was for nearly half a century an oasis of intelligent conversation and learned curiosity.
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There followed an inane and rambling disquisition on how Russia installed Trump as president.
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
First Known Use: 1662
in the meaning defined at sense 1
See Words from the same yearinane Synonyms
Synonyms
Antonyms
Near Antonyms
eloquent, expressive, pregnant, revealing, suggestive, telling;
logical, rational, reasonable, valid;
consequential, eventful, important, key, major, momentous, substantial, weighty;
Related Words
frivolous, inconsequential, inconsiderable, insignificant, minor, negligible, slight, trifling, trivial, unimportant;
absurd, asinine, balmy, brainless, crazy, empty-headed, fatuous, foolish, half-witted, harebrained, insane, loony (also looney), lunatic, mad, mindless, nonsensical, nutty, preposterous, stupid, tomfool, unintelligent, unwise, weak-minded, witless, zany;
Synonym Discussion of inane
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- an insipid romance with platitudes on every page
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- an exciting story given a vapid treatment
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- although well-regarded in its day, the novel now seems flat
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- a jejune and gassy speech
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- a banal tale of unrequited love
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- an inane interpretation of the play
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
INANE Defined for English Language Learners
INANE Defined for Kids
- inane remarks
Learn More about inane
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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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