Word Study
nullity
CIDE DICTIONARY
nullity, n. [LL. nullitias, fr. L. nullus none: cf. F. nullité . See Null.].
- The quality or state of being null; nothingness; want of efficacy or force. [1913 Webster]
- Nonexistence; as, a decree of nullity of marriage is a decree that no legal marriage exists. [1913 Webster]
- That which is null. [1913 Webster]"Was it not absurd to say that the convention was supreme in the state, and yet a nullity?" [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
nullity, n. (pl. -ies)
1 Law a being null; invalidity, esp. of marriage. b an act, document, etc., that is null.
2 a nothingness. b a mere nothing; a nonentity.
1 Law a being null; invalidity, esp. of marriage. b an act, document, etc., that is null.
2 a nothingness. b a mere nothing; a nonentity.
Etymology
F nullit{eacute} or med.L nullitas f. L nullus none
THESAURUS
nullity
a little thing, absence, aimlessness, cipher, dead letter, deprivation, dud, dummy, emptiness, empty sound, futility, hardly anything, hollow man, inanity, inessential, insignificance, insignificancy, jackstraw, lay figure, man of straw, marginal matter, matter of indifference, meaninglessness, mere noise, mere nothing, minor matter, nada, naught, nebbish, negation, negativeness, negativity, nihility, no great matter, nobody, noise, nonbeing, nonentity, nonexistence, nonoccurrence, nonreality, nonsensicality, nonsubsistence, not-being, nothing, nothing in particular, nothing to signify, nothingness, paltry affair, peu de chose, phatic communion, puppet, purposelessness, pushover, rien du tout, scarcely anything, senselessness, technicality, thing of naught, trifle, unactuality, unmeaningness, unreality, unsignificancy, vacancy, vacuity, vacuum, void, whiffet, whippersnapper, zero, zilchROGET THESAURUS
nullity
Inexistence
N inexistence, nonexistence, nonsubsistence, nonentity, nil, negativeness, nullity, nihility, nihilism, tabula rasa, blank, abeyance, absence, no such thing, nonbeing, nothingness, oblivion, annihilation, extinction, extinguishment, extirpation, Nirvana, obliteration, inexistent, nonexistent, negative, blank, missing, omitted, absent, insubstantial, shadowy, spectral, visionary, unreal, potential, virtual, baseless, in nubibus, unsubstantial, vain, unborn, uncreated, unbegotten, unconceived, unproduced, unmade, perished, annihilated extinct, exhausted, gone, lost, vanished, departed, gone with the wind, defunct, fabulous, ideal, supposititious &c, negatively, virtually, non ens.Unsubstantiality
N unsubstantiality, insubstantiality, nothingness, nihility, no degree, no part, no quantity, no thing, nothing, naught, nil, nullity, zero, cipher, no one, nobody, never a one, ne'er a one, no such thing, none in the world, nothing whatever, nothing at all, nothing on earth, not a particle, all talk, moonshine, stuff and nonsense, matter of no importance, matter of no consequence, thing of naught, man of straw, John Doe and Richard Roe, faggot voter, nominis umbra, nonentity, flash in the pan, vox et praeterea nihil, shadow, phantom, dream, ignis fatuus, such stuff as dreams are made of, air, thin air, vapor, bubble, baseless fabric of a vision, mockery, hollowness, blank, void, inanity, fool's paradise, unsubstantial, baseless, groundless, ungrounded, without foundation, having no foundation, visionary, immaterial, spectral, dreamy, shadowy, ethereal, airy, cloud built, cloud formed, gossamery, illusory, insubstantial, unreal, vacant, vacuous, empty, eviscerated, blank, hollow, nominal, null, inane, there's nothing in it, an ocean of dreams without a sound.For further exploring for "nullity" in Webster Dictionary Online