What does ennui mean?
Definitions for ennui
ɑnˈwien·nui
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word ennui.
Princeton's WordNet
boredom, ennui, tediumnoun
the feeling of being bored by something tedious
Wiktionary
ennuinoun
A gripping listlessness or melancholia caused by boredom; depression.
Etymology: * From ennui, from enui, from enuier (see ennuyer and annoy), from inodiare, from odium
Wikipedia
ennui
In conventional usage, boredom, ennui, or tedium is an emotional and occasionally psychological state experienced when an individual is left without anything in particular to do, is listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement, is not interested in their surroundings, or feels that a day or period is dull or tedious. It is also understood by scholars as a modern phenomenon which has a cultural dimension. "There is no universally accepted definition of boredom. But whatever it is, researchers argue, it is not simply another name for depression or apathy. It seems to be a specific mental state that people find unpleasant—a lack of stimulation that leaves them craving relief, with a host of behavioral, medical and social consequences." According to BBC News, boredom "...can be a dangerous and disruptive state of mind that damages your health"; yet research "...suggest[s] that without boredom we couldn't achieve our creative feats."In Experience Without Qualities: Boredom and Modernity, Elizabeth Goodstein traces the modern discourse on boredom through literary, philosophical, and sociological texts to find that as "a discursively articulated phenomenon...boredom is at once objective and subjective, emotion and intellectualization—not just a response to the modern world, but also a historically constituted strategy for coping with its discontents." In both conceptions, boredom has to do fundamentally with an experience of time—such as experiencing the slowness of time—and problems of meaning.
ChatGPT
ennui
Ennui refers to a feeling of weariness, dissatisfaction, and boredom resulting from a lack of interest or stimulation in life. It is often characterized by a sense of listlessness, apathy, and a general feeling of discontentment.
Webster Dictionary
Ennuinoun
a feeling of weariness and disgust; dullness and languor of spirits, arising from satiety or want of interest; tedium
Etymology: [F., fr. L. in odio in hatred. See Annoy.]
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
Ennui
äng-nwē′, n. a feeling of weariness or disgust from satiety, &c.: the occasion of ennui.—v.t. to weary: to bore.—adj. Ennuyé (äng-nwē-yā′), bored. [Fr.,—O. Fr. anoi—L. in odio, as in odio habeo, lit. 'I hold in hatred,' i.e. I am tired of. See Annoy.]
The Roycroft Dictionary
ennui
1. The fourth dimension of action. 2. The looking-glass of the Infinite. 3. A state of time wherein seconds become days and hours become years. 4. A shop that contains nothing but a silent salesman, Death.
Suggested Resources
ennui
Song lyrics by ennui -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by ennui on the Lyrics.com website.
Matched Categories
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of ennui in Chaldean Numerology is: 4
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of ennui in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9
Examples of ennui in a Sentence
Family dinners are more often than not an ordeal of nervous indigestion, preceded by hidden resentment and ennui and accompanied by psychosomatic jitters.
The failure of the mind in old age is often less the results of natural decay, than of disuse. Ambition has ceased to operate; contentment bring indolence, and indolence decay of mental power, ennui, and sometimes death. Men have been known to die, literally speaking, of disease induced by intellectual vacancy.
Life is islands of ecstasy in an ocean of ennui, and after the age of thirty land is seldom seen.
D. H. Lawrence, Women in Love:
There are three cures for ennui: sleep, drink and travel.
Society expects man to be a passive social animal who believes like the People of the Field in "Jurgen" that "to do what you always have done" and "what is expected of you" are the twin rules of life. This, is course, is not true. The wanton crucifixion of impulses, the unnecessary blocking and frustration of the drives and urges, are an evil that reflects itself in sophistication, ennui and boredom, dissatisfaction, melancholy, fatigue, anxiety and neurosis.
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Translations for ennui
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- скукаBulgarian
- diflastodWelsh
- livsledeDanish
- Langeweile, Apathie, Depression, MelancholieGerman
- ανίαGreek
- enuoEsperanto
- apatía, melancolíaSpanish
- ikävystyminen, ikäväFinnish
- dépression, mélancolie, indolence, apathieFrench
- विरक्तिHindi
- unalom, közöny, kedvtelenségHungarian
- perasaan bosanIndonesian
- lífsleiði, óyndiIcelandic
- noiaItalian
- アンニュイ, 憂鬱, 無聊, つれづれ, もの憂さJapanese
- ennuiLatin
- roheaMāori
- lusteloosheid, vervelingDutch
- znużeniePolish
- tédioPortuguese
- хандра, тоска, скукаRussian
- ledaSwedish
- ความน่าเบื่อThai
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"ennui." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/ennui>.
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