inane

From Middle French inane, from Latin inānis (“empty, vain, useless”).

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈneɪn/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪn

inane (comparative more inane, superlative most inane)

1. Lacking sense or meaning (often to the point of boredom or annoyance)

   (lacking sense): Synonyms: silly, fatuous, vapid

   This supremely gifted kid told me that in the early elementary grades, the songs sung in music class were so inane that he wanted to skip grades already! Eventually he did, so better late than never.

2. Purposeless; pointless
   • I. Taylor

     Vague and inane instincts.

inane (plural inanes)

1. That which is void or empty.
   • Locke

     The undistinguishable inane of infinite space.

   • 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:

     [...] whom we watch as we watch the clouds careering in the windy, bottomless inane, or read about like characters in ancient and rather fabulous annals.

• Annie, nenia

From Latin inānis.

inane (masculine and feminine plural inani)

1. (literary) useless, vain, inane

   Synonyms: inutile, vano

• inanità

• nenia

ināne

1. nominative neuter singular of inānis
2. accusative neuter singular of inānis
3. vocative neuter singular of inānis

• inane in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• inane in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) rich in ideas: sententiis abundans or creber (opp. sententiis inanis)
    
  • (ambiguous) mere words; empty sound: inanis verborum sonitus
    
  • (ambiguous) senseless rant: inanium verborum flumen
    
  • (ambiguous) to be misled by a vain hope: inani, falsa spe duci, induci
    

From Latin inānis.

inane m or f (plural inanes, comparable)

1. inane (lacking sense or meaning)

   Synonyms: vão, vazio, fútil

• inanição

From Latin inānis.

inane (plural inanes)

1. inane; pointless