emptiness

/ˈɛmpɾinɪs/

/ˈɛmptinɪs/

Other forms: emptinesses

Has your girlfriend left you? Your boss fired you and your dog run away from home? Then you're probably feeling a state of emptiness, a condition of meaninglessness or futility. Cheer up, you could try writing a country music song.

Although the emotional sense of emptiness is the most common, it can also mean a literal state of physical emptiness -— as in "the emptiness of space." Either way, emptiness might seem like a pretty bad thing, but consider the Bhuddist understanding of the term, for whom emptiness is in fact the ultimate virtue: “Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities,” said the famous Japanese teacher, D. T. Suzuki.

Definitions of emptiness

1. noun

   the state of containing nothing
   antonyms:

   fullness

   the condition of being filled to capacity

   types:

   blankness

   the state of being blank; void; emptiness

   hollowness

   the state of being hollow: having an empty space within

   vacancy

   the state of being unoccupied

   vacuity, vacuum

   the absence of matter

   type of:

   condition, status

   a state at a particular time
2. noun

   an empty area or space
   “the emptiness of outer space”

   synonyms: vacancy, vacuum, void

   type of:

   space

   an empty area (usually bounded in some way between things)
3. noun

   the quality of being valueless or futile
   synonyms: vanity

   type of:

   ineptitude, worthlessness

   having no qualities that would render it valuable or useful
4. noun

   having an empty stomach
   type of:

   hunger, hungriness

   a physiological need for food; the consequence of food deprivation