Word.ws English Dictionary

there's no there there

there's no there there is the alternative form of there is no there there.

Meaning of there is no there there

Phrase

there is no there there

  1. (idiomatic) The indicated thing, person, or other matter has no distinctive identity, or no significant characteristics, or no functional center point; nothing significant exists in that place; nothing significant is occurring in that situation.
    • She took us to see her granddaughter who was teaching in the Dominican convent in San Raphael, we went across the bay on a ferry, that had not changed but Goat Island might just as well not have been there, anyway what was the use of my having come from Oakland it was not natural to have come from...1937, Gertrude Stein, Everybody's Autobiography, Vintage Books, published 1973, page 289

Questions about there's no there there

What is there's no there there the alternative form of?
There's no there there is the alternative form of there is no there there.

Words near there's no there there in the dictionary

  1. there's no point crying over spilt milk
  2. there's no shame in my game
  3. there's no smoke without fire
  4. there's no such thing as a free lunch
  5. there's no such thing as a stupid question
  6. there's no there there
  7. there's no time like the present
  8. there's no use
  9. there's no use crying over spilt milk
  10. there's no war in Ba Sing Se
  11. there's no war within the walls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: there's no there there (page history and authors); there is no there there (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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