Ennui

Definition: Ennui

Ennui

Noun

1. The feeling of being bored by something tedious.

Date "ennui" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1637. (references)

Etymology: Ennui \En`nui"\, noun. [French expression, from the Latin expression in odio in hatred. See Annoy.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Ennui

Synonyms: boredom (n), tedium (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Incuriosity	Boredom, ennui (weariness); satiety; foreknowledge (foresight);
Weariness	Never hear the last of; be tired of, be sick of, be tired with; Adjective: yawn; die with ennui.
	Disgust, nausea, loathing, sickness; satiety; taedium vitae; (dejection); boredom, ennui.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Ennui

English words defined with "ennui": Ennuye, Ennuyee ♦ To be in the doldrums. (references)

Specialty definitions using "ennui": ANGLICIZED WORDS ♦ tedium. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Ennui" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses.

French (annoyance, boredom, bother, difficulty, ennui, fix, inconvenience, nuisance, tedium, trouble, vexation, wickedness, world-weariness).

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	And usually that is fine, but today, sorry lady, I have ennui. (Gilmore Girls; writing credit: Povl Erik Carstensen; Sebastian Dorset)
Movie/TV Titles	L' Ennui de Jean-Robert (2002) Ennui mortel (1991)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Castle Rackrent and Ennui (Penguin Classics) (reference) Ennui (Tales and Novels (10 Volumes) [Volume 4]) (reference) The Demon of Noontide: Ennui in Western Literature (reference) Un seul ennui, les jours raccourcissent : roman (reference) Violence et ennui : malaise au quotidien dans les relations professeurs-�eláeves (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	L' Ennui (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	Ennui Go (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Play	Caption
	Yawn; tired; exhausted; catch flies; divide; doze; drowse; expand; gap; gape; give; nap; part; sleep; snooze; spread; yaw; yawp; apathy; detachment; disgust; distaste; doldrums; dullness; ennui; fatigue; flatness; incuriosity; indifference; irksomeness; j.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	Symmetry is ennui, and ennui is the very essence of grief and melancholy.
Walden	Thoreau, Henry David	Undoubtedly the very tedium and ennui which presume to have exhausted the variety and the joys of life are as old as Adam.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	TEDIUM, n. Ennui, the state or condition of one that is bored. Many fanciful derivations of the word have been affirmed, but so high an authority as Father Jape says that it comes from a very obvious source -- the first words of the ancient Latin hymn Te Deum Laudamus. In this apparently natural derivation there is something that saddens.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Ennui" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Ennui" is used about 28 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	28	65,706

Expression using "ennui": die with ennui. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "ennui"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		mërzi (aridity, blackness, boredom, depression, drag, dumps, flatness, gloom, mood, spleen, tedium, weariness). (various references)

Arabic		‏ملل (bore, boredom, fatigue, monotony, ponderosity, tedium, tiredness, weariness). (various references)

Bulgarian		досада (annoyance, chagrin, displeasure, pip, plague, tedium, vexation, weariness). (various references)

Czech		nudit (bore). (various references)

Farsi		ملالت (Boredom, Gloom, Humdrum, Tedium), خستگی (Boredom, Exhaustion, Tedium, Tired), دلتنگی (Anguish, Melancholia, Tedium), بیزاری (Abhorrence, Aversion, Disgust, Grudge, Hatred, Loathloth, Reluctance, Tedium). (various references)

Finnish		ikävystyminen (boredom). (various references)

French		ennui. (various references)

German		langeweile (boredom, stuffiness, tediousness, tedium). (various references)

Greek		πλήξη (percussion, tedium), ανία (boredom, irksomeness, tedium). (various references)

Hungarian		unalom (bore, boredom, dullness, tedium, weariness). (various references)

Italian		noia (annoyance, bore, boredom, bother, dullness, molestation, nuisance, tedium, trouble). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		脱力感 (feeling of exhaustion, languishing), 無聊 (boredom). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ぶりょう (boredom), � つりょくか�" (feeling of exhaustion, languishing). (various references)

Manx		tooilleilys (laboriousness, weariness). (various references)

Pig Latin		ennuiay

Portuguese		nobilitação, aborrecimento (annoyance, bore, boredom, bother, botheration, caliber, calibre, inconvenience, nuisance, phew, resentment, satiety, tedium, trouble, unpleasantness, vexation, weariness). (various references)

Romanian		urât (abominable, bad, badly, boredom, dirty, filthy, foul, haggish, hateful, hideous, ill-featured, little, low, megrim, naughty, opprobrious, sour, squalid, tedium, ugly, unbecoming, unfairly, unsightly, vicious, villainous, wicked), plictisealã (bore, boredom, botheration, flatness, heaviness, monotony, ponderosity, prolixity, spleen, tediousness, tedium, trouble, weariness). (various references)

Russian		скука (bore, boredom, monotony, tedium, weariness). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		dosada (boredom, dullness, heretofore, hitherto, humdrum, idleness, monotony, tedium). (various references)

Spanish		tedio (boredom, disgust, tediousness, tedium, weariness). (various references)

Swedish		ledsnad, leda (articulate, beacon, boredom, boss, captain, channel, conduct, convey, direct, disgust, fugle, go, govern, guide, lead, loathing, open, operate, pilot, route, take, tedium, wheel). (various references)

Thai		การเบื่อชีวิตเนื่องจากขา�"ความตื่นเต้น. (various references)

Turkish		can sıkıntısı (blahs, boredom, dullness, megrims, tedium, the blues, the megrims), bıkkınlık (bellyful, boredom, disgust, surfeit, tedium, tiredness, weariness, willies). (various references)

Ukranian		нудьга (bore, boredom, damp, distemper, dullness, insipidity, insipidness, monotony, mope, needle, tedium, yearn, yearning). (various references)

Vietnamese		sự chán nản (chagrin, despondency, discouragement, disheartenment, dispiritedness, heaviness, lowness, low-spiritedness, vapour), sự bu�"n chán. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Old French	900-1400	enui. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "ennui": ennuis. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Ennui" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Anhui, annium, annue, annui, Annuvin, Anui, ecnu, Einaudi, emni, emnui, enbue, enenui, engi, eni, Enki, enn, ennea, ennel, ennemi, Ennew, enni, ennit, ennnui, Enno, ennon, ennu, ennuai, ennue, ennuii, ennuis, ennul, ennur, ennuui, ennyui, enou, enoui, enque, enri, enti, enu, enue, enui, enuii, enun, enuy, Enzi, innui, Neguib, unnui. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-i-n-n-u"
	-1 letter: nine.
	-2 letters: inn, nun.
	-3 letters: en, in, ne, nu, un.
	Words containing the letters "e-i-n-n-u"
	+1 letter: ennuis, undine.
	+2 letters: aneurin, anguine, bunnies, dunnite, enduing, ensuing, enuring, funnier, funnies, genuine, guanine, gunnies, ingenue, inurned, minuend, neurine, nuclein, nunlike, penguin, pinnule, punnier, quinine, quinone, reunion, runnier, sunnier, tunnies, undines, unhinge, unlined, unmined, unrisen, untwine.
	+3 letters: aneurins, antinuke, biennium, buntline, continue, denuding, dunnites, enduring, enginous, ensuring, finespun, funniest, guanines, henequin, heniquen, induline, infaunae, infecund, influent, ingenues, inhumane, innuendo, inturned, inundate, inurbane, julienne, linguine, minuends, muniment, neurines, neuronic, neutrino, nonissue, nucleins, nuisance, nutrient, penguins, pinnulae, pinnules, preunion, puniness, punniest, queening, quinines, quinones, retuning, reunions, runniest, sanguine, sunniest, sunshine, unageing, unbenign, unbidden, unbitten, uncinate, uncoined, undenied, underpin, unending, unenvied, unerring, ungenial, unhinged, unhinges, unionise, unionize, unironed, unjoined, unkinder, unkinked, unlinked, unmewing, unmingle, unnailed, unpinned, unrinsed, unseeing, unsewing, unsexing, unsigned, unsilent, unsonsie, untinged, untwined, untwines, ununited, unveined, unwinder, upending.
	+4 letters: annualize, annuities, beduncing, benumbing, bienniums, bunkering, buntlines, burdening, censuring, censusing, centurion, concubine, continued, continuer, continues, cunninger, debunking, decennium, defunding, engulfing, enouncing, enquiring, ensouling, enthusing, enunciate, expunging, funkiness, funneling, funniness, genuinely, guanidine, guanosine, gunneries, henequins, heniquens, hungering, hunkering, ichneumon, immunogen, inbounded, incumbent, incunable, incurrent, indenture, indulgent, indulines, influence, influents, influenza, ingenious, ingenuity, ingenuous, innuendos, inquiline, insinuate, insurance, insurgent, interunit, inundated, inundates, inurement, julienned, juliennes, junketing, linguines, loudening, luminance, mannequin, minuteman, minutemen, muniments, neptunium, neutering, neutrinos, neutronic, nonimmune, nonissues, nonsuited, nonunique, nucleonic, nuisances, numbering, nunneries, nutrients, nutriment, nuttiness, outsinned, peninsula, pneumonia, pneumonic, preunions, punkiness, quenching, quinidine, quinoline, refunding, repugning, rerunning, returning, reuniting, runcinate, runtiness, sanguines, saturnine, sequinned, squinnied, squinnier, squinnies, subvening, sundering, sunniness, sunshines, tautening, tendinous, triennium, tunneling, unaligned, unbearing, unbelting, unbending, unblinded, uncannier, unceasing, uncertain, unchained, undefined, underlain, underline, underling, undermine, underpins, underspin, underwing, undrained, unenvious, unfeeling, unfeigned, unfencing, unfitness, unfreeing, unhandier, unheeding, unhelming, unilineal, unilinear, unindexed, uninjured, uninsured, uninvited, unionised, unionises, unionized, unionizes, univalent, unjointed, unkindest, unknitted, unleading, unmanlier, unmeaning, unmeshing, unmingled, unmingles, unnerving, unnoticed, unpainted, unpegging, unpenning, unreeling, unreeving, unrefined, unripened, unsealing, unseaming, unseating, unselling, unsetting, unstained, unstinted, untainted, untrained, unveiling, unweaving, unweeting, unwinders, unwritten, upsending, uraninite, venturing.
	+5 letters: amanuensis, annualized, annualizes, annunciate, antihunter, antinature, antinausea, augmenting, aventurine, banqueting, blundering, burgeoning, burthening, centupling, centurions, chuntering, coenduring, concubines, conquering, continuate, continuers, councilmen, counseling, countering, counterion, cunningest, daundering, decenniums, delinquent, demounting, denaturing, denouncing, denudating, denudation, diminuendo, duennaship, dungeoning, enamouring, encrusting, enduringly, englutting, ensanguine, entrusting, enunciable, enunciated, enunciates, enunciator, expounding, expunction, foundering, fountained, functioned, funnelling, guanidines, guanosines, gudgeoning, guerdoning, gunslinger, hungriness, ichneumons, immunogens, incumbency, incumbents, incunables, incurrence, indentured, indentures, indigenous, inducement, inductance, indulgence, ineloquent, infinitude, influenced, influences, influenzal, influenzas, infrequent, inhumanely, injunctive, innuendoed, innuendoes, innumeracy, innumerate, innumerous, inquieting, inquilines, insinuated, insinuates, instrument, insurances, insurgence, insurgency, insurgents, integument, interlunar, interunion, interurban, inurements, jauntiness, journeying, julienning, laundering, lieutenant, luminances, mannequins, maundering, meaningful, millennium, minuteness, munificent, munitioned, nauseating, nebulising, nebulizing, neptuniums, neurogenic, neurotoxin, noninsured, nonroutine, nonserious, nucleating, nucleation, nucleonics, numerating, numeration, numinouses, nunciature, nutriments, outearning, outgrinned, peninsular, peninsulas, plumpening, plundering, pneumonias, preuniting, pungencies, puninesses, punishment, quadrennia, quaintness, quarantine, quaternion, quickening, quietening, quinacrine, quincunxes, quinidines, quinolines, rebounding, recounting, redounding, refounding, reinducing, reinfusing, reinjuring, reinsuring, relumining, remounting, renaturing, renouncing, renunciate, replunging, resounding, reunifying, reunionist, roughening, sanguinely, sauntering, scunnering, semiannual, sequencing, sinfulness, snubbiness, spelunking, spunkiness, squinniest, stoutening, subpenaing, subtending, subvention, supineness, suspending, suspension, thundering, tinnituses, toughening, tourneying, trienniums, tunnellike, tunnelling, turnverein, turpentine, ubiquinone, unassigned, unbecoming, uncalcined, uncanniest, unclinched, unclinches, uncoffined, uncombined, unconfined, uncovering, uncreating, undeniable, undeniably, underdoing, undergoing, underlined, underlines, underlings, underlying, undermined, undermines, underspins, underwings, undressing, unearthing, uneasiness, uneconomic, unedifying, unendingly, unenriched, unenviable, unerringly, unexamined, unexciting, unfairness, unfeminine, unfindable, unfinished, unforgiven, unfreezing, unfriended, unfriendly, ungainlier, unhandiest, unhindered, unholiness, unhygienic, unindicted, uninfected, uninflated, uninformed, uninitiate, uninspired, unintended, uninterest, uninvolved, uniqueness, univalents, unkindlier, unkindness, unlearning, unleashing, unleveling, unlicensed, unlikeness, unmanliest, unmitering, unneurotic, unpedantic, unpeopling, unpleasing, unpunished, unraveling, unripeness, unruliness, unscrewing, unsettling, unshelling, unsinkable, unspeaking, unsphering, unsteeling, unstepping, unstrained, unswearing, unswerving, unteaching, untidiness, untreading, unveilings, unwariness, unwavering, unwinnable, unyielding, uraninites, windburned, wunderkind, youthening.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.