nullity
/ˈnʌlɪti
/noun (plural nullities)
1 Law An act or thing that is legally void.It is submitted that the certificates of default on the two recognizances in question are nullities because the justices failed to set out the reason for the default....
- Is there not law that the orders of a superior court, as the Federal Court is by statute, are not nullities but are voidable and are valid as between the parties until set aside?
- The fact is the bankruptcy notice was a nullity.
1.1 [mass noun] The state of being legally void or invalid, especially with reference to a marriage.That to my mind is the distinction between invalidity and nullity....
- Whenever the court has jurisdiction in the main proceedings for divorce, nullity or judicial separation, then it also has jurisdiction to order such variations.
- The general principle of Community law is that nullity is retroactive: once the act is annulled under Article 230 it is void ab initio.
Synonyms
invalidity, non-validity;
illegality
rare voidness
2A thing of no importance or worth.In columns like this one he has mastered the art of simultaneously talking out of both sides of his mouth in words that add up to a nullity....
- Bert Archer's op-ed piece made some valid points but he lost my support when he made the statement ‘an animal, whether farmed or domestic, is a moral nullity.’
- On a matter deemed vital to the national interest of the United States, the UN should be used by the United States for whatever use it may be and otherwise considered a nullity.
2.1 [mass noun] Nothingness.We associate black with nullity, with the void that is deep space, but here it is given the identity of a black goddess giving birth: simultaneously humanized and exalted....
- Even its delayed new building reflects the nullity as official auditors rubbish the assembly's claim that Richard Rogers's design would be too expensive.
- And he expressly asserts the entire nullity of the influence of all the Homoeopathic remedies tried by him in modifying, so far as he could observe, the progress or termination of the diseases.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from French nullité, from medieval Latin nullitas, from Latin nullus 'none'.