IMMATERIAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does immaterial mean? 

• IMMATERIAL (adjective)
  The adjective IMMATERIAL has 5 senses:

1. of no importance or relevance especially to a law case

2. without material form or substance

3. not consisting of matter

4. not pertinent to the matter under consideration

5. (often followed by 'to') lacking importance; not mattering one way or the other

  Familiarity information: IMMATERIAL used as an adjective is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IMMATERIAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of no importance or relevance especially to a law case

Context example:

an objection that is immaterial after the fact

Antonym:

material (directly relevant to a matter especially a law case)

Derivation:

immateriality (complete irrelevance requiring no further consideration)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Without material form or substance

Synonyms:

immaterial; incorporeal

Context example:

an incorporeal spirit

Similar:

bodiless; discorporate; disembodied; unbodied; unembodied (not having a material body)

spiritual (lacking material body or form or substance)

Also:

unbodied (having no body)

Attribute:

corporality; corporeality; materiality; physicalness (the quality of being physical; consisting of matter)

Derivation:

immateriality (the quality of not being physical; not consisting of matter)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Not consisting of matter

Synonyms:

immaterial; nonmaterial

Context example:

ghosts and other immaterial entities

Similar:

intangible; nonphysical (lacking substance or reality; incapable of being touched or seen)

Also:

insubstantial; unreal; unsubstantial (lacking material form or substance; unreal)

Attribute:

corporality; corporeality; materiality; physicalness (the quality of being physical; consisting of matter)

Antonym:

material (derived from or composed of matter)

Derivation:

immateriality (the quality of not being physical; not consisting of matter)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Not pertinent to the matter under consideration

Synonyms:

extraneous; immaterial; impertinent; orthogonal

Context example:

mentioned several impertinent facts before finally coming to the point

Similar:

irrelevant (having no bearing on or connection with the subject at issue)

Derivation:

immateriality (complete irrelevance requiring no further consideration)

Sense 5

Meaning:

(often followed by 'to') lacking importance; not mattering one way or the other

Synonyms:

immaterial; indifferent

Context example:

what others think is altogether indifferent to him

Similar:

unimportant (not important)

Derivation:

immateriality (complete irrelevance requiring no further consideration)

 Context examples 

Childish and immaterial as the topic was, the quality of their reasoning was still more childish and immaterial.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The interests of his deplorable profession are immaterial to us; but, as he observes, we cannot get down in any case, so it is a waste of energy to discuss it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I could have thrown my bootjack at him (it lay ready on the rug), for having entrapped me into the disclosure of anything concerning Agnes, however immaterial.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It is really immaterial who I am, but since the matter seems to interest you, Mr. Von Bork, I may say that this is not my first acquaintance with the members of your family.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She comforted her father better than she could comfort herself, by representing that though he certainly would make them nine, yet he always said so little, that the increase of noise would be very immaterial.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I knew well that I risked death; for any drug that so potently controlled and shook the very fortress of identity, might, by the least scruple of an overdose or at the least inopportunity in the moment of exhibition, utterly blot out that immaterial tabernacle which I looked to it to change.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

So far as climate goes, it was immaterial what time we chose for our expedition, as the temperature ranges from seventy-five to ninety degrees both summer and winter, with no appreciable difference in heat.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)