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say it: vayn
vain is an adjective meaning "characteristic of false pride; having an exaggerated sense of self-importance". It carries 2 recorded senses.
characteristic of false pride; having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
“a conceited fool”
“an attitude of self-conceited arrogance”
“an egotistical disregard of others”
“so swollen by victory that he was unfit for normal duty”
“growing ever more swollen-headed and arbitrary”
“vain about her clothes”
unproductive of success
“a fruitless search”
“futile years after her artistic peak”
“a sleeveless errand”
“a vain attempt”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for vain come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.