9 definitions found for insubstantial

Insubstantial INSUBSTAN'TIAL, a. Unsubstantial; not real.

insubstantial 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]

insubstantial 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

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

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

insubstantial ˌɪnsəbˈstænʃəl adj. 1 lacking solidity or substance. 2 not real. øøinsubstantiality n. insubstantially adv. [LL insubstantialis (as IN-(1), SUBSTANTIAL)]

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

insubstantial ˌɪnsəbˈstænʃəl adj. 1 unsubstantial, insignificant, meagre, diaphanous, small, flimsy, frail, weak, feeble, paltry, puny, slight, thin, tenuous, fragile, light, gossamer, wispy, wisp-like, fine: Though the spider's thread appears insubstantial, for its weight it is enormously strong. 2 illusory, unreal, illusive, imaginary, imagined, fanciful, fancied, visionary, immaterial, intangible, impalpable, incorporeal, airy, ethereal, spiritual, chimerical, phantom, phantasmal, phantasmagorical, hallucinatory, fantastic; false: Through the mist London seemed insubstantial, a dream city of vapours rising from the Thames.

196 Moby Thesaurus words for "insubstantial": 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