I. ˈnələd.ē, -ətē, -i noun
( -es )
Etymology: Middle French nullité, from Medieval Latin nullitat-, nullitas, from Late Latin nulli- + Latin -itat-, -itas -ity
1.
a.
(1) : the state or fact of being legally null or void : invalidity
(2) : a case of nullity
(3) : a nullifying or invalidating fact or circumstance
b.
(1) English law : the total absence of legal effect or existence
(2) : a judicial declaration of the invalidity of a marriage ab initio : annulment
c. : any act or proceeding void of legal effect either absolutely (as in English law) or relatively (as sometimes in the civil law)
2.
a. : the state of being null or nothing : want of efficacy or force : nothingness
a haunting and growing sense of the nullity of human life — Edmund Wilson
b. : a mere nothing : nonentity
a diplomacy that results in pure nullities — R.H.Rovere
taken a nice nullity as his central character — Sidney Alexander
II. noun
: the number of elements in a basis of a null-space