jejune
Use the adjective jejune to describe something that is uninteresting or insignificant. Many people claim to find celebrity gossip jejune, but ask them about a recent movie star scandal and chances are they know all about it.
Jejune can also describe something that’s immature or simplistic. All that actress could say about her latest movie was that it was “Super fun”? That’s a pretty jejune comment. Basically jejune means lacking substance. It originally comes from the Latin word jejunus, which means “fasting,” so when something is jejune, it’s figuratively empty — devoid of intellectual nourishment.
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lacking interest or significance or impact“jejune novel”synonyms: insipiduninterestingarousing no interest or attention or curiosity or excitement
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displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity“jejune responses to our problems”synonyms: adolescent, juvenile, puerile, sophomoricimmaturecharacteristic of a lack of maturity
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lacking in nutritive value“the jejune diets of the very poor”synonyms: insubstantialunwholesomedetrimental to physical or moral well-being
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Vocabulary lists containing jejune
Words selected by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionaries. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
On the New SAT, all of the Reading Test questions are multiple choice and are based on reading passages that may be taken from literature, science, the social sciences, or a US founding document (or a text inspired by such a document). Many of the reading comprehension questions meant to assess a student’s understanding of those passages will require students to choose words that best describe the writer’s tone or point of view, words like the 200 words you see on this list. Learn them here so when you see them in an SAT answer choice, you’ll know what they mean! Here are all of our word lists to help you prepare for the new SAT (debuting March of 2016): The Language of the Test, Multiple-Meaning Words, and Words to Capture Tone.
On the SAT, all of the Reading Test questions are multiple choice and are based on reading passages that may be taken from literature, science, the social sciences, or a U.S. founding document (or a text inspired by such a document). Many of the reading comprehension questions meant to assess a student’s understanding of those passages will require students to choose words that best describe the writer’s tone or point of view, words like the 25 words you see on this list. Learn them here so when you see them in an SAT answer choice, you’ll know what they mean! Following our Roadmap to the SAT? Head back to see what else you should be learning this week.