Words / B2

EMPT-een-uh-s/ˈemptinəs/

Emptiness is the state of being empty, or a feeling of having no meaning or purpose (usually uncountable): a sense of emptiness; the emptiness of. Empty is the adjective (already in the dictionary); vacancy is a close twin for a place; void is more formal. Emptiness of the high street in the census still needs the year. Mix-up: emptiness vs emptiness as a poetry cliché; emptiness vs emptiness of calories in a slogan; do not leave emptiness as the whole evaluation with no year or n.

Meaning

The state of being empty; also a feeling of having no meaning or purpose (usually uncountable).

Examples

• “Emptiness of the high street in the census still needs the year, the geography paper said.”
• “A spiritual emptiness in the poem still needs the named image, the literature paper said.”

Good to know

the emptiness of; a sense of emptiness. Adjective: empty. Close: vacancy / void. Trap: a cliché with no data. Geography, literature, and RS. Being empty, or a sense of no purpose — quote the year or name the image.

Near in meaning

vacancy, void, blankness

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