there is no there there
there is no there there phrase: 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.
Phrase
there is no there there
- 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
- There is a character issue for Mr. Bush in this campaign. The clothes have no emperor. There is no there there.1992 May 6, Anna Quindlen, “Public & Private: No There There”, in New York Times, retrieved 01 Mar 2017
Forms of there is no there there
| alternative form | there's no there there |
|---|---|
| alternative form | there's no "there" there |
| alternative form | there is no "there" there |
Origin of there is no there there
From a remark by Gertrude Stein in Everybody's Autobiography (1937), concerning the fact that her childhood home in Oakland, California, no longer existed.
Questions about there is no there there
- What does there is no there there mean?
- There is no there there means 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.
- What part of speech is there is no there there?
- There is no there there is a phrase.
Words near there is no there there in the dictionary
- there is no such thing as a free lunch
- there is no such thing as bad press
- there is no such thing as bad publicity
- there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing
- there is no telling
- there is no there there
- there is no war in Ba Sing Se
- there is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution
- there is nothing new under the sun
- there is reason in the roasting of eggs
- there is safety in numbers
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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