senselessness
- noun
- /ˈsɛnsləsnəs/
- People often reflect on the senselessness of war and its impact on innocent lives.
Examples
-
Unconsciously, she shook her head at the senselessness of Duncan Andrews' taking drugs.
Fiction book (1992) -
Their work was more secure; there was a higher level of employment; but they were more and more aware of the frustration and alienation that they were experiencing at the workplace -- a senselessness about their work, a feeling that their work had no meaning and purpose.
Academic text (1994) -
Leaving it off screen seemed to highlight the senselessness of death.
Blog text (7) -
There is no sense to this senselessness, only probability.
Blog text (11) -
These are not sensible policy decisions, but the senselessness of them comes from making the system dependent on these swing states.
-
I adopt this second approach, believing the very senselessness of the words to be significant, but draw a different conclusion.
Academic text (2016) -
The 1975 version was about maintaining an identity in a dystopian future and the senselessness of violence.
Blog text (14) -
Their goal, admirable in most views, was to alert the American public to the senselessness of the war and to hasten its end.
Fiction book (1995) -
Still, I suddenly realized the senselessness of it—you wouldn't have answered me anyway.
Fiction book (1998) -
I feel that both choices are rudimentary and pitiful, and though I know the senselessness of advocating any given path to other novelists, I am still inclined to say, leave both extremes.
Academic text (1995)
Synonyms
A feeling that life has no meaning
Not having any clear meaning
A feeling that what you do has no purpose or value
A state of being very silly and without any real meaning
A state when something has no purpose or use
A lack of thought or care in what someone does
A lack of clear purpose or direction
The feeling of having no clear goal or direction
A lack of ideas or meaning
A state of being empty of meaning and thought
An idea or statement that has no meaning
A feeling of having no clear purpose or aim
A state when something has no clear meaning
Antonyms
How Senseless
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Senselessness comes from the parts sense ('meaning' or 'feeling'), -less ('without') and -ness (the state of something). So it means 'the state of being without meaning or reason', which is why we use it for a plot, action, or event that seems pointless.