''vanity'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260727004347-00-⌔

vanity - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

vanity (countable and uncountable, plural vanities)

• That which is vain, futile, or worthless; that which is of no value, use or profit.
  • ✤ Then I said in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me and why then was I more wise? Then I said in my heart that this is also vanity./For there is no more remembrance of the wise than the fool forever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.¹
• Excessive pride in or admiration of one’s own abilities, appearance, achievements, or possessions.
  • ✤ To make a man in love with you gives an instant hold on his vanity; and with that, you can do any thing. Vanity is the real lever with which Archimedes said he could move the earth; so, try what you can effect with Sir Robert.²
  • ✤ It’s not vanity, to me, it’s my sanity³
  • ✤ Try to second guess what people see/All the time it’s just your vanity/No one’s impressed and you wonder why/Well it is, it shows in the eyes⁴
  • ✤ Social media hasn’t just weaponized our vanity —it’s transformed us from humans into curated digital performances. Our phones have become portable propaganda machines for our personal brands.⁵
• A dressing table used to apply makeup, preen, and coif hair, in which the table is normally quite low and similar to a desk.
  • ✤ She was sitting in front of her vanity, brushing out her hair.⁶
• A washbasin installed into a permanently fixed storage unit, used as an item of bathroom furniture.
• (obsolete) Any idea, theory or statement that is without foundation.
  • ✤ It is a vanity to say that if two stones are dropped from a tower, the heavier will experience the greater acceleration.
  • ✤ To help the matter, the alchemists call in likewise many vanities out of astrology.⁷

Etymology

🖼️ ➺

A vanity (dressing table; sense 3).

🖼️ ➺

A bathroom vanity (sense 4).

From va(i)n +‎ -ity, from Middle English vanite, from Old French vanité, from Latin vānitas, from vānus, whence English vain. Doublet of vanitas.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈvænɪti/
• Audio (Received Pronunciation): 🔊
• (General American) IPA: /ˈvænəti/, [-ɾi]
• Audio (General American): 🔊
• Hyphenation: van‧i‧ty

Printed 2026-07-27.

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Footnotes

1. 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ecclesiastes 2:15–16: ↩

2. 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Project”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 224: ↩

3. 1979, Nile Rodgers, Bernard Edwards, “Lost in Music”, performed by Sister Sledge: ↩

4. 1981, Ashford & Simpson, “It Shows In the Eyes”, in Performance: ↩

5. 2024 November 29, Joshua Stylman, How Engineered Dependency Erases Our Autonomy ‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩

6. 2020, Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half, Dialogue Books, page 148: ↩

7. 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis[Bacon], “”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p] rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC: ↩