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vain

/veɪn/adjective

vain is spelled V-A-I-N: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 5.5 times per million words in written English, the 10,519th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “vain vs vein” about 1,900 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, vain means “Overly proud of oneself, especially concerning appearance; having a high opinion of one's own accomplishments with slight reason” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in vain?

Letters4: V-A-I-N
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing5.5 times per million words; the 10,519th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is vain?

Vain appears 5.5 times per million words in written English, the 10,519th 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 vain?

  • US /veɪn/
  • /ven/
  • /vein/

Vain has one syllable (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: En-us-vain.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with vain

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

vain vs vein1,900 G
vain vs vane480 G

Sounds like: vane, vein (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with vain?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as vain from its last stressed vowel (/eɪn/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: ivan, vina.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of vain

  • vainer comparative
  • more vain comparative
  • vainest superlative
  • most vain superlative
  • vains present, singular, he/she/it
  • vaining participle, present
  • vained participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does vain mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Overly proud of oneself, especially concerning appearance; having a high opinion of one's own accomplishments with slight reason.

  2. 2

    Having no real substance, value, or importance; empty; void; worthless; unsatisfying.

  3. 3

    Effecting no purpose; pointless, futile.

    vain toil    a vain attempt

  4. 4

    Showy; ostentatious.

noun

as VAIN
  1. 1

    Acronym of vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia.

verb

  1. 1

    datedobsoleterareTo frustrate.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Vain in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchvaniteux (overly proud of one's appearance), frivole (based on very little substance), vain, futile (pointless, futile)
Germaneitel (overly proud of one's appearance), unnütz, vergeblich (pointless, futile)
Portuguesevaidoso, vão (overly proud of one's appearance), vazio (based on very little substance)
Spanishvanidoso (overly proud of one's appearance), vano, vacuo (pointless, futile)

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 vain come from?

From Middle English veyn, from Old French vain, from Latin vānus (“empty”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after vain