【学个词 nugatory】nugatory - adj. 无价值的；琐碎的；无效的；无法律效力的

Nugatory

　　adjective

　　1: of little or no consequence : TRIFLING, INCONSEQUENTIAL

　　comments too nugatory to merit attention

　　2: having no force : INOPERATIVE

　　The law was unenforced and thus rendered nugatory.

　　Did you know?

　　Just because nugatory isn’t the most common word in the English language doesn’t mean it’s trifling. Rather, nugatory is literally trifling because the two words are synonymous, as in “comments too nugatory to merit attention.” Nugatory first appeared in English in the 17th century; it comes from the Latin adjective nugatorius, which can mean not only “trifling” or “frivolous” but also "futile.” This sense carried over into English as well, and so in some contexts nugatory means “ineffective” or “having no force,” as when Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson invoked “the nugatory value of the contemporary penny.” Nugatory may mean little to some, but we think it’s worth a pretty penny.

　　Synonyms

　　-bad，inoperative，invalid，nonbinding，nonvalid，null，null and void，void

　　Choose the Right Synonym for nugatory

　　VAIN, NUGATORY, OTIOSE, IDLE, EMPTY, HOLLOW mean being without worth or significance.

　　VAIN implies either absolute or relative absence of value.

　　vain promises

　　NUGATORY suggests triviality or insignificance.

　　a monarch with nugatory powers

　　OTIOSE suggests that something serves no purpose and is either an encumbrance or a superfluity.

　　a film without a single otiose scene

　　IDLE suggests being incapable of worthwhile use or effect.

　　idle speculations

　　EMPTY and HOLLOW suggest a deceiving lack of real substance or soundness or genuineness.

　　an empty attempt at reconciliation

　　a hollow victory

　　Example Sentences

　　1 the congressional resolution has symbolic value only, as it relates to a matter governed by the states and is thus nugatory

　　2 the book is entertaining, but its contributions to Shakespearean scholarship are nugatory

　　3 But the benefits to Russia longer term could be nugatory.- W. James Antle Iii, The Week, 4 Mar. 2022

　　4 It could be used to rationalize stealing the pennies from a dead man’s eyes, true, even considering the nugatory value of the contemporary penny. -Marilynne Robinson, The New York Review of Books, 27 May 2020

　　5 Yet all of these questions seem, increasingly, merely nostalgic, nugatory, in the face of the dissolution of the common solidarity of principles that had once made the liberation happen. -Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 6 June 2019