as in boredom
the state of being bored
the kind of ennui that comes from having too much time on one's hands and too little will to find something productive to do
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Recent Examples of ennui
His blue eyes always sparkled with a peculiar combination of intelligence, mischief, and ennui, exactly like Robin Williams.
—
Danielle Parker, CBS News, 20 Jan. 2026
Super Pedestrian is loose and fun in an untight world — pop-rock banger after banger about the messiness of life in your early twenties, navigating situationships, and combatting post-pandemic ennui.
—Marissa R. Moss, Rolling Stone, 19 Dec. 2025
Absolved of the possibility of death, the novel suffers the ennui that vampires endure.
—Literary Hub, 17 Dec. 2025
The lyrics have the same anesthetized ennui as in emo rap and the new wave of online rock, but the beats are menacingly new and dead-set on defacing your consciousness.
—Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 17 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ennui
Danielle Parker, CBS News, 20 Jan. 2026
Super Pedestrian is loose and fun in an untight world — pop-rock banger after banger about the messiness of life in your early twenties, navigating situationships, and combatting post-pandemic ennui.
—Marissa R. Moss, Rolling Stone, 19 Dec. 2025
Absolved of the possibility of death, the novel suffers the ennui that vampires endure.
—Literary Hub, 17 Dec. 2025
The lyrics have the same anesthetized ennui as in emo rap and the new wave of online rock, but the beats are menacingly new and dead-set on defacing your consciousness.
—Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 17 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ennui
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ennui
boredom
Noun
-
Experiment with different seasonings to minimize boredom and flavor fatigue.—
Amy Brownstein,
Verywell Health,
3 Mar. 2026
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As a result, the remote operators experience extreme swings in workload: sometimes overwhelming intensity, sometimes crushing boredom.—
Missy Cummings,
IEEE Spectrum,
2 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Ennui.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ennui. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026.
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