inane

English

WOTD – 23 January 2010    

Etymology

From Latin inānis (“empty, vain, useless”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪˈneɪn/
• Rhymes: -eɪn

Adjective

inane (comparative more inane, superlative most inane)

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

   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.

Synonyms

• (lacking sense): silly, fatuous, vapid

Derived terms

• inanely
• inanity

Translations

lacking sense or meaning

• Danish: intetsigende (da), åndsforladt (da)
• Dutch: zinloos (nl), inhoudsloos (nl), stom (nl), flauw (nl)
• Finnish: tyhjä (fi), merkityksetön (fi), typerä (fi)
• French: inepte (fr), insensé (fr)
• German: sinnlos (de), albern (de)
• Norwegian: intetsigende (no)
• Polish: bezmyślny (pl), głupi (pl)
• Portuguese: inane (pt), vão (pt), vazio (pt), fútil (pt)

• Russian: глупый (ru) (glúpyj), пустой (ru) (pustój), бессмысленный (ru) (bessmýslennyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: faoin (gd)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бесмислен (sh)

  Roman: besmislen (sh)

• Swedish: intetsägande (sv), andefattig (sv)

Noun

inane (plural inanes)

1. That which is void or empty.
   • Locke

     The undistinguishable inane of infinite space.

Anagrams

• Annie

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Italian

Etymology

From Latin inanis

Adjective

inane m and f (m and f plural inani)

1. (literary) useless, vain, inane

Synonyms

• inutile, vano

Derived terms

• inanità

Anagrams

• nenia

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Latin

Adjective

ināne

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

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Spanish

Etymology

From Latin inanis.

Adjective

inane m and f (plural inanes)

1. inane; pointless