nothingness

From nothing + -ness.

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nothingness (usually uncountable, plural nothingnesses)

1. (philosophy) The state of nonexistence; the condition of being nothing.
   • 1818, John Keats, “Book I”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 3, lines 1–5:

     A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness; but still will keep / A bower quiet for us, and a sleep / Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

   • 2014 April 12, Michael Inwood, “Martin Heidegger: the philosopher who fell for Hitler [print version: Hitler's philosopher]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)‎^[1], London, page R11:

     In 1928 [Martin] Heidegger succeeded [Edmund] Husserl to take a chair at Freiburg and in his inaugural lecture made a pronouncement that earned him a reputation as an archetypal metaphysician with his claim that our awareness of people as a whole depends on our experience of dread in the face of nothingness.

2. A void; an emptiness.
3. The quality of inconsequentiality; the lack of significance.

• (state of nonexistence): nihility; See also Thesaurus:inexistence

• (antonym(s) of “state of nonexistence”): existence; See also Thesaurus:existence