This is the state of having no clear aim — the empty feeling, or the empty stretch of time, when nothing is pulling you forward. Writers use it for a mood, a season of life, or a war they think has no point in the deeper sense: no worthy aim. It is a heavy, rather formal noun. You will meet it in essays and novels more than at the table. Though actually, people sometimes reach for it when they mainly mean boredom or sadness. Those feelings often travel with it, but the word itself is about missing direction, not missing fun. A busy day can still be full of purposelessness if none of the busyness is going anywhere.

漫無目的、毫無目的