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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

nugatory.

Trivial, trifling or of little importance.

8 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈn(j)uːɡətɔɹi/
  1. Trivial, trifling or of little importance.

  2. Ineffective, invalid or futile.

  3. Having no force, inoperative, ineffectual.

  4. Removable from a computer program with safety, but harmless if retained.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Latin nūgae Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -or Latin nūgor Proto-Indo-European *-tōr Proto-Italic *-tōr Latin -tor Latin nūgātōr Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English nugatory From Latin nūgātōr (“jester”) + English -y (“adjectival suffix”). Borrowed from Latin nūgātōrius, from nūgātor m (“jester”) + -ius (“suffix forming adjectives”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.