Meaningless

What is a word that means a meaningless complement?
Q. I believe it is a noun, and it is used when somebody complements someone in a way that has lost its meaning due to repetitiveness. For example if a teacher says, "this has been my best class!" but they say that same thing to every class, then it would be a meaningless complement. So, what is the word for that?
Asked by Lilly - Wed Nov 25 03:29:25 2009 - - 8 Answers - 0 Comments

A. Redundancy noun 1. the state of being redundant. 2. superfluous repetition or overlapping, esp. of words Example: One of the biggest redundancies I noticed of that teacher was her meaningless compliments, when I heard "This has been my best class!" but that teacher said the same thing to every class.
Answered by Philip - Fri Nov 27 22:43:49 2009

What is an article that shows meaningless precision?
Q. I'm trying to explain to my 12-yr old, what meaningless precision is, you know when a recipe has 342 calories, but the '4" and the "2" dont really have a value, it's the 300 that is significant. So, I'm trying to find an article that shows meaningless precision.
Asked by Hollagrl - Wed Nov 18 21:41:57 2009 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments

A. I would guess that you're still in high school, in 10th grade or so. Anyways, it's quite easy to find an article, because several newspapers have an online edition. Simply search for "recipes" on one of the newspapers' websites, and there you have it. Scan over the article and check for any signs of meaningless precision in the many recipes available. (Since you know what meaningless precision is, I'm sure it will be easy pinpointing the spot, and then you can show that article/recipe to your daughter.) You're all set. Best of luck.
Answered by Neon - Thu Nov 19 21:53:48 2009

Is it better to live a meaningless life--or live a life of meanigless circles?
Q. Most people live in meanigless circles, but the circles somehow gives them a feeling of living a meanigful existence.
Asked by lemur_monk - Fri Jul 14 00:18:36 2006 - - 7 Answers - 0 Comments

A. The fact that basic motivations are arbitrary doesn't invalidate them-- the emotion telling you that arbitrary things are "meaningless" is a natural part of the human reasoning instinct, but it only should be applied to means to ends. "Meaningless" is a term used to describe a concept's inability to advance a specific, given goal, or a concept's lack of definition, neither of which has an application to a person's most basic motivations (self preservation, love, sometimes ideologies- although it's rarely as clear-cut as that).
Answered by -artifex - Fri Jul 14 01:08:00 2006