vacuous
/ˈvækju.əs/adjective
vacuous is spelled V-A-C-U-O-U-S: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 50,539th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, vacuous means “Empty; void; lacking meaningful content” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in vacuous?
| Letters | 7: V-A-C-U-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 50,539th 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 vacuous?
Vacuous appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 50,539th 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 vacuous?
- /ˈvækju.əs/
Vacuous 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)-Vealhurl-vacuous.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of vacuous
- more vacuous comparative
- most vacuous superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does vacuous mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Empty; void; lacking meaningful content.
vacuous expression
- 2
Showing a lack of thought or intelligence; vacant.
Near-synonym: fatuous
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Vacuous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | niais |
| German | leer, nichtssagend , gedankenlos |
| Portuguese | vazio |
| Spanish | vacuo |
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 vacuous come from?
Learned borrowing from Latin vacuus (“empty, vacant”) + -ous.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).