INSIGNIFICANT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does insignificant mean? 

• INSIGNIFICANT (adjective)
  The adjective INSIGNIFICANT has 4 senses:

1. signifying nothing

2. of little importance or influence or power; of minor status

3. devoid of importance, meaning, or force

4. small and unimpressive

  Familiarity information: INSIGNIFICANT used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INSIGNIFICANT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Signifying nothing

Context example:

insignificant sounds

Similar:

meaningless; nonmeaningful (having no meaning or direction or purpose)

Derivation:

insignificance (the quality of having little or no significance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of little importance or influence or power; of minor status

Synonyms:

insignificant; peanut

Context example:

peanut politicians

Similar:

minor (of lesser importance or stature or rank)

Derivation:

insignificance (the quality of having little or no significance)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Devoid of importance, meaning, or force

Synonyms:

insignificant; unimportant

Similar:

hole-and-corner; hole-in-corner (relating to the peripheral and unimportant aspects of life)

flimsy; fragile; slight; tenuous; thin (lacking substance or significance)

inappreciable (too small to make a significant difference)

light (having little importance)

superficial; trivial (of little substance or significance)

Also:

unimportant (not important)

meaningless; nonmeaningful (having no meaning or direction or purpose)

Attribute:

significance (the quality of being significant)

Antonym:

significant (important in effect or meaning)

Derivation:

insignificance (the quality of having little or no significance)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Small and unimpressive

Synonyms:

dinky; insignificant

Context example:

an insignificant sum of money

Similar:

little; small (limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

 Context examples 

We were both very tired when we knocked off for supper, and we had done good work, too, though to the eye it appeared insignificant.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Even the most insignificant problem would be welcome in these stagnant days.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Rome took all the vanity out of me, for after seeing the wonders there, I felt too insignificant to live and gave up all my foolish hopes in despair."

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Again I tell you it is not the insignificant private individual—the mere man, with the man's selfish senses—I wish to mate: it is the missionary.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The risk of local lymph node metastasis is insignificant and the prognosis is excellent.

(Early Invasive Cervical Adenocarcinoma, NCI Thesaurus)

It was no insignificant barrier, indeed.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The most trivial, paltry, insignificant part; the merest commonplace; not a tolerable speech in the whole.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

If it were not for the grave interests involved the affair up to this point would be insignificant.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The waiter, who I supposed had lived in his churchwarden's pew for forty years, could not pursue such an insignificant subject.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Women in the mildly deficient range had a smaller, statistically insignificant increase in the time it took to conceive.

(Iodine deficiency may reduce pregnancy chances, National Institutes of Health)