adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Empty; void; lacking meaningful content.

   "vacuous expression"

2. 2
   Showing a lack of thought or intelligence; vacant.

Adjective

1. 1
   devoid of matter wordnet
2. 2
   devoid of significance or force wordnet
3. 3
   devoid of intelligence or thought wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

emptyharebrainedvacantaddlebrainedaddlepatedairheaded

Antonyms

All antonyms

brainybrightpacked to the gillspacked to the rafters

Example

More examples

"Another unbearably vacuous title!"

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin vacuus (“empty, vacant”) + -ous.

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