nullity

noun

nul·​li·​ty ˈnə-lə-tē 

plural nullities

1

a

: the quality or state of being null

especially : legal invalidity

b(1)

: nothingness

also : insignificance

(2)

: a mere nothing : nonentity

2

: one that is null

specifically : an act void of legal effect

3

: the number of elements in a basis of a null-space

Did you know?

Intellectuals may speak of a book or a film as a nullity, claiming it possesses nothing original enough to justify its existence. Legal scholars also use the word; a law passed by a legislature may be called a nullity if, for example, it's so obviously unconstitutional that it's going to be shot down by the courts in no time. And if you're in an unkind mood, you're also free to call a person a nullity, if you're not instead calling him a nobody, a nonentity, or a zero.

Synonyms

• cipher
• dwarf
• half-pint
• insect
• insignificancy
• lightweight
• morsel
• nobody
• nonentity
• nothing
• number
• pip-squeak
• pygmy
• pigmy
• shrimp
• snippersnapper
• twerp
• whippersnapper
• zero
• zilch

Examples of nullity in a Sentence

that tiny country's ambassador from the U.S. is usually some nullity who happens to be a friend or supporter of the current president

one of the basic themes of the theater of the absurd is the essential nullity of human existence

Recent Examples on the Web

Journal Editorial Report: How to make Congress a nullity. —Giovanni Caforio, WSJ, 29 Aug. 2023

The thousands of votes already cast and those to be cast on Aug. 8, 2023, for mayoral candidates would be a nullity. —Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press, 7 Aug. 2023

There were pillows on the couch, a whole flotilla of them, and there were two armchairs flanking it, a coffee table, bookshelves, the black nullity of a flat-screen TV affixed to the wall across from her. —T. Coraghessan Boyle, The New Yorker, 31 Oct. 2022

The overall Pessoan effect—of fertility and nullity overlaid, of a teeming garden spied through the transparent body of a phantom—gathers into a single sensation extremes of modern exuberance and despair. —Benjamin Kunkel, Harper's Magazine, 26 Oct. 2021

Kyrsten Sinema has spent the last year participating in a Beltway social experiment that might determine whether an intellectual nullity, clad in Instagrammable vintage wear, might be passed off as a brave and serious centrist ideologue. —Jason Linkins, The New Republic, 9 Oct. 2021

The Vatican announces reforms to the legal structures Catholics must follow to achieve marital nullity. —Cnn Editorial Research, CNN, 6 June 2021

However, the implementation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong and the electoral-system revamp have rendered it a nullity. —Aaron Rhodes, National Review, 18 Mar. 2021

Later antislavery champions, including Abraham Lincoln, always considered the Northwest Ordinance to be organic to the Constitution; proslavery advocates came to regard it as an illegitimate nullity. —Sean Wilentz, The New York Review of Books, 3 Aug. 2020

Word History

First Known Use

1543, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Legal Definition

nullity

noun

nul·​li·​ty ˈnə-lə-tē 

plural nullities

1

: the quality or state of being null

2

: an act, proceeding, or contract void of legal effect compare impediment

— absolute nullity

in the civil law of Louisiana : a contract or act considered void by virtue of a transgression of the public order, interest, law, or morals

a bigamous marriage is an absolute nullity

—Louisiana Civil Code

also : the quality or state of such a nullity

Note: A marriage that is an absolute nullity does not have to be annulled to terminate its legal effects (as property rights).

— relative nullity

in the civil law of Louisiana : a nullity that can be cured by confirmation because the object involved is considered valid

also : the quality or state of such a nullity

Note: A contract that is a relative nullity may be annulled and the parties restored to their original positions. A marriage that is a relative nullity must be annulled to terminate the legal effects (as property rights) of the marriage.