"sweet nothings" meaning in English

See sweet nothings in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-sweet nothings.ogg [Australia] Forms: sweet nothing [singular]
Head templates: {{en-noun|p|head=sweet nothings|sg=sweet nothing}} sweet nothings pl (normally plural, singular sweet nothing)
  1. (idiomatic) Insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo, or seduce. Tags: idiomatic, plural, plural-normally Categories (topical): Love Translations (insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce): 甜蜜情話 (english: between lovers) (Chinese Mandarin), 甜蜜情话 (tiánmì qínghuà) (Chinese Mandarin), 甜言蜜語 (note: for flattery) (Chinese Mandarin), 甜言蜜语 (tiányánmìyǔ) (Chinese Mandarin), paroli dolĉe en la orelon (Esperanto), hempeät sanat (Finnish), mots doux [masculine, plural] (French), Zärtlichkeiten [plural] (German), aranyos semmiségek (Hungarian), små söta ord [neuter, plural] (Swedish)

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for sweet nothings meaning in English (4.6kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sweet nothing",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "p",
        "head": "sweet nothings",
        "sg": "sweet nothing"
      },
      "expansion": "sweet nothings pl (normally plural, singular sweet nothing)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English pluralia tantum",
          "parents": [
            "Pluralia tantum",
            "Nouns",
            "Lemmas"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Mandarin terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with redundant transliterations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Love",
          "orig": "en:Love",
          "parents": [
            "Emotions",
            "Virtue",
            "Mind",
            "Ethics",
            "Human",
            "Philosophy",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1904, George Gissing, chapter 28, in Veranilda",
          "text": "Hearing such words as these, in the sweetest, tenderest voice that ever caressed a lover's senses, Basil knew not how to word all that was in his heart. . . . Side by side, forgetful of all but their recovered peace, they talked sweet nothings.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004 April 25, Joe Klein, “Does Bush Really Get Us?”, in Time, archived from the original on 2010-11-03",
          "text": "It is difficult to know how accurate this portrait is, and how much of it consists of sweet nothings whispered into the author's ear by loyal retainers.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo, or seduce."
      ],
      "id": "en-sweet_nothings-en-noun-MhWm7icS",
      "links": [
        [
          "Insubstantial",
          "insubstantial"
        ],
        [
          "romantic",
          "romantic"
        ],
        [
          "flatter",
          "flatter"
        ],
        [
          "woo",
          "woo"
        ],
        [
          "seduce",
          "seduce"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo, or seduce."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "plural",
        "plural-normally"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "english": "between lovers",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
          "word": "甜蜜情話"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "tiánmì qínghuà",
          "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
          "word": "甜蜜情话"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "note": "for flattery",
          "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
          "word": "甜言蜜語"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "tiányánmìyǔ",
          "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
          "word": "甜言蜜语"
        },
        {
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
          "word": "paroli dolĉe en la orelon"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
          "word": "hempeät sanat"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
          "tags": [
            "masculine",
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "mots doux"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
          "tags": [
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "Zärtlichkeiten"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
          "word": "aranyos semmiségek"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
          "tags": [
            "neuter",
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "små söta ord"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-sweet nothings.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f5/En-au-sweet_nothings.ogg/En-au-sweet_nothings.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/En-au-sweet_nothings.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "sweet nothings"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sweet nothing",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "p",
        "head": "sweet nothings",
        "sg": "sweet nothing"
      },
      "expansion": "sweet nothings pl (normally plural, singular sweet nothing)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English pluralia tantum",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Mandarin terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
        "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
        "en:Love"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1904, George Gissing, chapter 28, in Veranilda",
          "text": "Hearing such words as these, in the sweetest, tenderest voice that ever caressed a lover's senses, Basil knew not how to word all that was in his heart. . . . Side by side, forgetful of all but their recovered peace, they talked sweet nothings.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004 April 25, Joe Klein, “Does Bush Really Get Us?”, in Time, archived from the original on 2010-11-03",
          "text": "It is difficult to know how accurate this portrait is, and how much of it consists of sweet nothings whispered into the author's ear by loyal retainers.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo, or seduce."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Insubstantial",
          "insubstantial"
        ],
        [
          "romantic",
          "romantic"
        ],
        [
          "flatter",
          "flatter"
        ],
        [
          "woo",
          "woo"
        ],
        [
          "seduce",
          "seduce"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo, or seduce."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "plural",
        "plural-normally"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-sweet nothings.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f5/En-au-sweet_nothings.ogg/En-au-sweet_nothings.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/En-au-sweet_nothings.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "english": "between lovers",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
      "word": "甜蜜情話"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "tiánmì qínghuà",
      "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
      "word": "甜蜜情话"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "note": "for flattery",
      "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
      "word": "甜言蜜語"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "tiányánmìyǔ",
      "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
      "word": "甜言蜜语"
    },
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
      "word": "paroli dolĉe en la orelon"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
      "word": "hempeät sanat"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
      "tags": [
        "masculine",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "mots doux"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "Zärtlichkeiten"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
      "word": "aranyos semmiségek"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "insubstantial or romantic words that are only meant to flatter, woo or seduce",
      "tags": [
        "neuter",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "små söta ord"
    }
  ],
  "word": "sweet nothings"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.