Adjacent Words

Insubstantial definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INSUBSTAN'TIAL, a. Unsubstantial; not real.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: lacking material form or substance; unreal; "as insubstantial as a dream"; "an insubstantial mirage on the horizon" [syn: insubstantial, unsubstantial, unreal] [ant: material, real, substantial]
2: lacking in nutritive value; "the jejune diets of the very poor" [syn: insubstantial, jejune]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: probably from French insubstantiel, from Late Latin insubstantialis, from Latin in- + Late Latin substantialis substantial Date: 1607 not substantial: as a. lacking substance or material nature b. lacking firmness or solidity ; flimsy • insubstantiality noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 lacking solidity or substance. 2 not real. Derivatives: insubstantiality n. insubstantially adv. Etymology: LL insubstantialis (as IN-(1), SUBSTANTIAL)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Insubstantial In`sub*stan"tial, a. Unsubstantial; not real or strong. ``Insubstantial pageant.'' [R.] --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Something that is insubstantial is not large, solid, or strong. Mars has an insubstantial atmosphere, consisting almost entirely of carbon dioxide... ADJ

Moby Thesaurus

adulterated, airy, asomatous, astral, attenuate, attenuated, bodiless, boyish, brittle, capricious, changeable, chimerical, corruptible, cut, dangerous, decarnate, decarnated, deciduous, decrepit, defalcation, deficiency, deficit, delicate, desultory, diaphanous, dilute, diluted, discarnate, disembodied, dying, ephemeral, ethereal, evanescent, extramundane, fading, false, fancied, fanciful, fantastic, feeble, fickle, fine, fine-drawn, finespun, fleeting, flimsy, flitting, fly-by-night, flying, fragile, frail, fugacious, fugitive, gaseous, gauzy, ghostly, girlish, gossamer, gracile, hallucinatory, illusive, illusory, imaginary, imagined, immaterial, impalpable, impermanent, impetuous, imponderable, impulsive, inadequacy, inconclusive, inconstant, incorporate, incorporeal, infirm, insecure, insignificant, insufficiency, intangible, lack, lacy, light, metaphysical, misty, momentary, mortal, mutable, nondurable, nonmaterial, nonpermanent, nonphysical, nonsubstantial, occult, otherworldly, paltry, papery, passing, paucity, perilous, perishable, phantasmal, phantom, poor, poverty, precarious, provisional, psychic, puny, rare, rarefied, risky, scant, scantiness, scarceness, shadowy, shaky, shifting, shifty, short-lived, shortage, slender, slenderish, slight, slight-made, slim, slimmish, slinky, slippery, small, spiritual, subtile, subtle, supernatural, svelte, sylphlike, temporal, temporary, tentative, tenuous, thin, thin-bodied, thin-set, thin-spun, thinned, thinned-out, thinnish, threadlike, ticklish, transient, transitive, transitory, transmundane, treacherous, uncompact, uncompressed, unconcrete, undependable, underage, undurable, unearthly, unembodied, unenduring, unextended, unfaithworthy, unfleshly, unphysical, unproved, unreal, unreliable, unrigorous, unsolid, unsound, unstable, unsteadfast, unsteady, unsubstanced, unsubstantial, unsure, unsustained, untrustworthy, unworldly, vague, vaporous, visionary, volatile, wasp-waisted, watered, watered-down, watery, weak, weightless, willowy, windy, wiredrawn, wispy