Vain

//veɪn//

Synonyms for "vain" (336 found)

Ranked by relevance and common usage.

Closest matches (68)

conceited fruitless pointless abortive absurd airy arrogant asinine barren baseless boastful boasting bootless bootlessly braggart bragging catchpenny cocky complacent consequential

Show 11 more words

counterproductive coxcombical dandyish delusive delusory doomed effete egocentric egoistic egotistical empty

Adjective(33 words)

conceited flaunting futile idle ostentatious pointless pretentious airy arrogant authoritarian barren base bedizened big-headed biggity blatant blingish blustery boastful bombastic

Show 13 more words

bootless brash buggish catchpenny chichi chintzy cocky contemptible crass crude disdainful domineering egotistical

Adjective(4 words)

bootless conceited egotistic egotistical

Strong matches (100)

Adjective(56 words)

entitled flashy flatulent florid flossy foolish for the birds frivolous froufrou fruitless full of oneself gainless garish gauche gaudy gay glaring grandiose gross gussied up

Show 36 more words

etiolated fanfaron fanfaronading fatuitous fatuous feckless flimsy fond foolish foppish foredoomed forlorn fribble fribbling frivolous frothy fruitlessly futile futilely gascon

Show 22 more words

gasconading groundless haughty hollow hopeless idle ill-founded improperly in vain inadequate inane ineffective ineffectual inefficacious inoperative invalid light meaningless misleading narcissan narcissine narcissistic

Adjective(2 words)

fruitless futile

Related words (168)

Adjective(81 words)

narcissistic negligible nondescript nothingburger obtrusive oppressive orgulous overbearing overweening paltry pansified petty picayune picayunish piddling piddly pissant pitiful pizazzy pompous

Show 61 more words

Show 63 more words

Adjective(4 words)

self-conceited sleeveless swollen swollen-headed

Related word relations

OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.

7 relation types

More general

3 entries

coxcombical proud self-absorbed

Antonyms

1 entries

modest

Synonyms

4 entries

conceited fruitless pointless self conceited

Related terms

6 entries

arrogance beauty one-dimensional shallow superficial vanity

derived

5 entries

Richard of York gave battle in vain in vain take someone's name in vain vainly vainness

related to

15 entries

adjective big big ego blood conceited deadly deadly sin ego futile look look mirror mirror sin unmovable vanity

similar

2 entries

proud unproductive

Translations

128 translations across 42 languages.

Ancient Greek

3 entries

μάταιος adj (pointless, futile)
τηΰσιος ψαινύθιος adj (pointless, futile)
ἀποφώλιος adj (pointless, futile)

Armenian

3 entries

դատարկ adj (based on very little substance)
ունայն adj (pointless, futile)
սնապարծ adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

Azerbaijani

4 entries

bihudə adj (based on very little substance)
bihudə adj (pointless, futile)
boş adj (based on very little substance)
boş adj (pointless, futile)

Bulgarian

4 entries

безполезен adj (pointless, futile)
безсъдържателен adj (based on very little substance)
напразен adj (pointless, futile)
празен adj (based on very little substance)

Catalan

3 entries

va adj (based on very little substance)
va adj (pointless, futile)
vanitós adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

Czech

1 entries

marný adj (pointless, futile)

Danish

3 entries

forfængelig adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
forgæves adj (pointless, futile)
overfladisk adj (based on very little substance)

Dutch

3 entries

ijdel adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
nutteloos adj (pointless, futile)
tevergeefs adj (pointless, futile)

Eastern Mari

1 entries

арам adj (pointless, futile)

Esperanto

3 entries

vana adj (pointless, futile)
vanta adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
vanta adj (based on very little substance)

Finnish

4 entries

hyödytön adj (pointless, futile)
turha adj (based on very little substance)
turha adj (pointless, futile)
turhamainen adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

French

4 entries

frivole adj (based on very little substance)
futile adj (pointless, futile)
vain adj (pointless, futile)
vaniteux adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

Galician

1 entries

vaidoso adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

Georgian

4 entries

ამაო adj (based on very little substance)
ამაო adj (pointless, futile)
თავმომწონე adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
პატივმოყვარე adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

German

2 entries

eitel adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
unnütz adj (pointless, futile)

Gothic

1 entries

𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌺𐍃 adj (pointless, futile)

Greek

2 entries

μάταιος adj (pointless, futile)
ματαιόδοξος adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

Hebrew

2 entries

גאוותן adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
חסר תועלת adj (pointless, futile)

Hindi

2 entries

तुच्छ adj (based on very little substance)
व्यर्थ adj (pointless, futile)

Hungarian

4 entries

alaptalan adj (based on very little substance)
beképzelt adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
céltalan adj (pointless, futile)
felesleges adj (pointless, futile)

Ido

1 entries

vanitatoza adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

Irish

4 entries

amú adj (pointless, futile)
arduallach adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
díomasach adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
in aisce adj (pointless, futile)

Italian

3 entries

vanesio adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
vanitoso adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
vano adj (pointless, futile)

Kabuverdianu

4 entries

bazofe adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
bazófu adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
intxide adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
janóta adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

Khiamniungan Naga

1 entries

yâng adj (pointless, futile)

Ladin

1 entries

sabe adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

Latin

2 entries

cassus adj (pointless, futile)
vānus adj (pointless, futile)

Māori

2 entries

whakahīhī adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
whakapehapeha adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

Norwegian

1 entries

overfladisk adj (based on very little substance)

Norwegian Bokmål

1 entries

forgjeves adj (pointless, futile)

Norwegian Nynorsk

1 entries

forgjeves adj (pointless, futile)

Old Irish

2 entries

madach adj (pointless, futile)
madae adj (pointless, futile)

Persian

1 entries

ایفده adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

Polish

1 entries

próżny adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

Portuguese

4 entries

vaidoso adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
vazio adj (based on very little substance)
vão adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
vão adj (pointless, futile)

Russian

4 entries

беспло́дный adj (based on very little substance)
напра́сный adj (pointless, futile)
показно́й adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
пусто́й adj (based on very little substance)

Sanskrit

1 entries

तुच्छ adj (based on very little substance)

Scottish Gaelic

4 entries

faoin adj (based on very little substance)
faoin adj (pointless, futile)
mòr às adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
sgòideasach adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

Spanish

3 entries

vacuo adj (pointless, futile)
vanidoso adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
vano adj (pointless, futile)

Swedish

2 entries

fåfäng adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
fåfäng adj (pointless, futile)

Ukrainian

1 entries

марносла́вний adj (overly proud of one's appearance)

Welsh

3 entries

balch adj (overly proud of one's appearance)
gwag adj (pointless, futile)
ofer adj (pointless, futile)

Sample sentences

19 total sentences available.

Tatoeba + Wiktionary

All my haste was in vain.

Source: tatoeba (19747)

We knocked at the door for five minutes, but in vain.

Source: tatoeba (23004)

All our efforts were in vain.

Source: tatoeba (23353)

All the doctor's efforts were in vain and the man soon died.

Source: tatoeba (28026)

Showing 4 of 19 available sentences.

More for "vain"

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