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Vacuously for Dummies

pronunciation: 'vækjuəsli

What does Vacuously really mean?

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Vacuously is a word that might sound a little complicated at first, but don't worry, I'm here to help you understand it easily! So, have you ever wondered what it means when someone says something is "vacuously true" or "vacuously false"? Well, let's break it down together.

When we say something is "vacuously true," it means that it is true, but in a way that doesn't really tell us much about the real world. It's like if I said, "All unicorns are purple." That statement is technically true because there are no unicorns that exist in the real world, so we can't prove that they are not purple. But we also can't prove that they are purple either. So, it's true in a way, but it doesn't really tell us anything useful or meaningful.

On the other hand, when we say something is "vacuously false," it means that it is false, but again, in a way that doesn't really tell us much either. For example, if I said, "All dogs can fly," we know that dogs can't actually fly in the real world. So, this statement is false. But it's false in a way that doesn't really give us any information or tell us anything we didn't already know.

Now, let's try to make sense of it with a metaphor. Imagine you have a bag of Skittles candies, and you say, "All the Skittles in my bag are green." But, when you open the bag, you realize there are no Skittles in there at all! So, even though what you said is technically true (because there are no Skittles that are not green in the bag), it doesn't really tell us anything about the actual colors of Skittles in the real world. It's a bit like making a statement about something that doesn't even exist.

So, in a nutshell, vacuously means stating something that is technically true or false, but in a way that doesn't give us any meaningful or useful information about the real world. It's like talking about things that don't exist or making statements that are so obvious they don't really tell us anything new. I hope that makes sense!

Revised and Fact checked by Lily Wilson on 2023-10-28 01:26:51

Vacuously In a sentece

Learn how to use Vacuously inside a sentece

  • When someone makes a statement like 'All dogs have wings', we can say that it is vacuously false because it is obviously not true.
  • Imagine a person saying 'I saw a mermaid in the park yesterday.' Since mermaids are not real, we can say that this statement is vacuously untrue.
  • If someone claims that 'Every car in the world is yellow', we can say that this statement is vacuous because it is impossible for every single car to be the same color.
  • Suppose someone says 'I am taller than every person on Earth.' Since it is not possible for someone to be taller than every single person, we can say this statement is vacuously incorrect.
  • A person saying 'I have never seen a four-legged bird' is vacuously stating the obvious because birds naturally have two legs, not four.

Vacuously Pertains To

Words to which the original word is relevant