emptiness
noun
emptiness is spelled E-M-P-T-I-N-E-S-S: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 20,356th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, emptiness means “The state or feeling of being empty; an emotion that combines hollowness, numbness, disconnection and a lack of meaning in life, resulting in…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of emptiness is emptinesses.
How many letters and syllables are in emptiness?
| Letters | 9: E-M-P-T-I-N-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.9 times per million words; the 20,356th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is emptiness?
Emptiness appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 20,356th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce emptiness?
- US
Emptiness has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-emptiness.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of emptiness
- emptinesses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does emptiness mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The state or feeling of being empty; an emotion that combines hollowness, numbness, disconnection and a lack of meaning in life, resulting in existential boredom, ennui or depression.
- 2
A void; a nothingness; something lacking existence.
- 3
A nonexistence; a lack of existence.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Emptiness in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the state or feeling of being empty:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does emptiness come from?
Inherited from Middle English emptynesse, from Old English ǣmtiġnes. By surface analysis, empty + -ness.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).