nothingness

noun

noth·​ing·​ness ˈnə-thiŋ-nəs 

1

: the quality or state of being nothing: such as

a

: nonexistence

b

: utter insignificance

c

: death

2

: something insignificant or valueless

3

: void, emptiness

Synonyms

• dead
• deadness
• death
• grave
• lifelessness
• sleep

Examples of nothingness in a Sentence

He was staring into nothingness.

The sound faded into nothingness.

Recent Examples on the Web

At this point, resisting the urge to rotate, the superfluid suddenly spawns a single quantum vortex — a whorl of atoms surrounding a column of nothingness that extends to the bottom of the bucket. —Quanta Magazine, 6 Nov. 2024

The star stays visible for around a week, before fading back into nothingness for the best part of the next century. —Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 1 Nov. 2024

WandaVision’s Elizabeth Olsen recently opened up about her own frustrations performing inside the physical nothingness required to bring Marvel’s big-budget projects together in postproduction. —Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge, 26 Sep. 2024

David Foster Wallace’s titular Depressed Person dwindles into existential nothingness, a speck of dust in the vacuum of her agonized solipsism. —Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker, 25 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1631, in the meaning defined at sense 1