Ennui

//ɒnˈwiː// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A gripping listlessness or melancholia caused by boredom; depression. countable, uncountable

    "There have always been individuals who toy with the political extremes out of a sort of high-class ennui."

  2. 2
    the feeling of being bored by something tedious wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To make bored or listless; to weary. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
boredomacediaboredomacediaangstanguish

Example

More examples

"A great black night wrapped the city in an oppressively comforting ennui."

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French ennui, from Old French enui (“annoyance”), from enuier (modern French ennuyer), from Late Latin inodiō, from Latin in odiō (“hated”). Doublet of annoy.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.