The Meaning of munashii [空しい] In Japanese

空しい
むなしい
Romaji: munashii N4

What does 空しい mean?

Translation and Meaning

empty, hollow, meaningless, futile

Definition

空しい means empty or hollow in a moral, emotional, or existential sense. It describes states, feelings, or experiences that lack substance, value, or purpose.

Type

adjective (形容詞・イ形容詞)

Stroke Order

Meanings

  • physical emptiness or void
  • emotional futility or meaninglessness
  • hollow, devoid of substance
  • desolate or unsatisfying outcomes

Composition

  • 空: conveys emptiness or void; in this word it contributes the basic idea of emptiness
  • しい: a common i-adjective ending that forms adjectives from a noun or stem

Usage

空しい describes emptiness across physical, emotional, or existential states and appears in both literary and everyday speech. It can modify nouns directly in compounds like 空しい人生 or 空しい気持ち, or function as a predicate with です/だ in sentences.
💡 Tips
Mnemonic: visualize 空 as an empty container and attach the suffix しい; this pairing reminds you that munashii expresses emptiness or futility.

Variations

  • 虚しい (munashii) — same meaning
  • 空虚な (kūkyona) — hollow/emptiness
  • むなしさ (munashisa) — the noun form meaning emptiness
  • 有意義な (yuigina) — meaningful, opposite

Example Phrases

  • 今日は 仕事が終わっても 空しい 気分で 何も 変わらない。
    Kyou wa shigoto ga owatte mo munashii kibun de nanimo kawaranai.
    Even though I finish work today, I feel empty and nothing changes.
    Lista:
    • 今日は (kyou wa) – today
    • 仕事が終わっても (shigoto ga owatte mo) – even though work ends
    • 空しい (munashii) – empty
    • 気分で (kibun de) – feeling
    • 何も (nanimo) – nothing
    • 変わらない (kawaranai) – doesn’t change
    In this sentence, 「空しい」 describes a feeling of emptiness; it modifies 気分で to express the ’empty feeling’ state. The て-form plus も expresses ‘even though.’
空しい