1
as in devoid
lacking contents that could or should be present
a great vacuous space that should have been filled with an audience
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in dumb
not having or showing an ability to absorb ideas readily
a movie that was enthusiastically derided for its vacuous dialogue
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of vacuous
These are the hallmarks of the Alien franchise, which have remained mostly consistent across the seven movies (plus two vacuous Alien vs. Predator crossovers) that have kept those terrifying Xenomorphs coming back to our screens every decade since the original premiered in 1979.
—
Judy Berman, Time, 5 Aug. 2025
Bateman's seething anger at having his card bested by that of his colleague Paul Allen (Jared Leto), despite the two cards looking almost identical, satirized the vacuous materialism of 1980s yuppie culture.
—New Atlas, 9 June 2025
In recent months, a more nebulous and vacuous kind of assessment has been entering into the AI vocabulary.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 5 May 2025
Slim, serious, and searching, Hunting in America revolves around some major topics right now: the experience of our inter-country relations, gun usage in our country, and the vacuous void at the center of one’s quest for power and meaning in America.
—Literary Hub, 7 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for vacuous
Judy Berman, Time, 5 Aug. 2025
Bateman's seething anger at having his card bested by that of his colleague Paul Allen (Jared Leto), despite the two cards looking almost identical, satirized the vacuous materialism of 1980s yuppie culture.
—New Atlas, 9 June 2025
In recent months, a more nebulous and vacuous kind of assessment has been entering into the AI vocabulary.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 5 May 2025
Slim, serious, and searching, Hunting in America revolves around some major topics right now: the experience of our inter-country relations, gun usage in our country, and the vacuous void at the center of one’s quest for power and meaning in America.
—Literary Hub, 7 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for vacuous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for vacuous
Adjective
-
Banking has become functionally correct but emotionally devoid, with the industry swimming in a sea of sameness.—
Michael Abbott,
Forbes,
19 Mar. 2025
-
That devoid ingredient hindered things exponentially.—
Roderick Boone,
Charlotte Observer,
15 Feb. 2024
Adjective
-
The reigning Super Bowl champs better hope that’s the dumbest thing that one of their players does this season.—
Parker Gabriel,
Denver Post,
6 Sep. 2025
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Sometimes, actors play a slightly dumber iteration of themselves; think James Van Der Beek in Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23 and Liam Neeson in Life’s Too Short (a performance that got Neeson cast in this year’s The Naked Gun).—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Erik Thommy could not get to the rebound in time to take advantage of an empty net, and his shot was blocked by a defender out for a corner kick.—
Daniel Sperry,
Kansas City Star,
8 Sep. 2025
-
What To Know On the night of August 22, Zarutska boarded a Lynx Blue Line train and sat in an empty two-person seat.—
Robert Alexander,
MSNBC Newsweek,
8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
The recent rash of CEOs Gone Wild is arguably even stupider than commonplace fraud, and a troubling sign that there continues to be a slippery slope of accountability for C-Suite leadership.—
Ian Chaffee,
Fortune,
5 Sep. 2025
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The accounts team logs in right on time, and the stupid dance of platitudes that precedes every meeting at every company around the world begins.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
The local Rite Aid was getting ready to shut down, with barren shelves and 75% off all items, while commerce elsewhere in the town of less than 3,000 people wasn’t exactly bustling.—
David Mark,
The Washington Examiner,
5 Sep. 2025
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While flying a shuttlecraft, she gets sucked into a wormhole and crashes onto a barren moon.—
Adam B. Vary,
Variety,
5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Biden, who ended his bid for a second White House term 107 days before last year's election, has been relatively slow to move on presidential library planning compared with most of his recent predecessors.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
7 Sep. 2025
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With Parkinson’s, doctors implant electrodes in the brain that produce electrical impulses to disrupt the abnormal signals that cause tremors, stiffness and slow movement.—
Jen Christensen,
CNN Money,
7 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
With just a few chairs, a handful of tables and a simple tent, the setting was intimate but filled with love and intention.—
Tereza Shkurtaj,
PEOPLE,
7 Sep. 2025
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And one of these, for those of us accustomed to British conventions but who follow the game in continental Europe, is the simple passage of time.—
Michael Cox,
New York Times,
6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
The polished sateen set boasts a thick border in six color combinations to wake up a bedroom.—
Nashia Baker,
Architectural Digest,
10 Sep. 2025
-
To serve, top with thick, creamy Greek yogurt and vibrant fruits of choice, like raspberries, mangoes and blueberries.—
The New York Times News Service Syndicate,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
10 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Vacuous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/vacuous. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.
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