annul

English

Etymology

From Middle English annullen, from Old French anuller, from Latin annullō (“annihilate, annul”), from ad (“to”) +‎ nūllus (“none, not any”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ʌl
• IPA^(key): /əˈnʌl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Homophone: Anal (an ethnic group in India; not to be confused with anal, which is not homophonous)

Verb

annul (third-person singular simple present annuls, present participle annulling, simple past and past participle annulled)

1. (transitive) To formally revoke the validity of.

   Antonym: uphold

   • 1902, William James, “Lecture 2”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     If you ask how religion thus falls on the thorns and faces death, and in the very act annuls annihilation, I cannot explain the matter, for it is religion's secret, and to understand it you must yourself have been a religious man of the extremer type.

2. (transitive) To dissolve (a marital union) on the grounds that it is not valid.

Derived terms

• annullability
• annullable
• annuller
• annulment
• disannul

 

Related terms

• (formally revoke the validity of): make or render null and void, null, nullify
• (dissolve (a marital union)): dissolve

Translations

formally revoke the validity of

• Bulgarian: отменям (bg) (otmenjam), анулирам (bg) (anuliram)
• Catalan: anul·lar (ca)
• Cherokee: ᎠᏲᏍᏙᏗ (ayosdodi)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 廢除／废除 (zh) (fèichú), 取消 (zh) (qǔxiāo)

• Danish: annullere (da), ophæve
• Dutch: annuleren (nl)
• Finnish: mitätöidä (fi), kumota (fi)
• French: annuler (fr)
• Galician: anular (gl)
• Georgian: ანულირება (anulireba)
• German: annullieren (de)
• Greek: ακυρώνω (el) (akyróno), καταργώ (el) (katargó)

  Ancient: ἀναιρέω (anairéō)

• Hebrew: בִּטֵּל (bitél)
• Hungarian: érvénytelenít (hu)
• Italian: annullare (it)
• Japanese: 取り消す (ja) (とりけす, torikesu), 廃棄する (ja) (はいきする, haiki-suru)
• Latin: annūllō
• Macedonian: поништи (poništi)
• Maori: whakakāhore
• Norwegian: annullere (no), oppheve

  Bokmål: tilbakekalle

• Polish: anulować (pl)
• Portuguese: anular (pt)
• Romanian: anula (ro), revoca (ro)
• Russian: аннули́ровать (ru) impf or pf (annulírovatʹ), отменя́ть (ru) impf (otmenjátʹ), отмени́ть (ru) pf (otmenítʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: anulirati (sh)
• Spanish: revocar (es), anular (es), invalidar (es)
• Swedish: annullera (sv), ogiltigförklara (sv)
• Ukrainian: касува́ти (uk) impf (kasuváty), скасува́ти (uk) pf (skasuváty)
• Yiddish: אַנולירן (anulirn)

dissolve (a marital union)

• Bulgarian: разтрогвам (raztrogvam)
• Dutch: ontbinden (nl), annuleren (nl)
• Finnish: mitätöidä (fi)
• German: annullieren (de)
• Greek: ακυρώνω (el) (akyróno) (akiróno)
• Polish: anulować (pl) impf or pf
• Portuguese: anular (pt)
• Russian: расторга́ть (ru) impf (rastorgátʹ), расто́ргнуть (ru) pf (rastórgnutʹ)
• Spanish: anular (es)

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “annul”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• Luann, Lunan