| English Dictionary |
INSUBSTANTIAL
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Dictionary entry overview: What does insubstantial mean?
• INSUBSTANTIAL (adjective)
The adjective INSUBSTANTIAL has 3 senses:
1. lacking material form or substance; unreal
2. lacking in nutritive value
3. lacking solidity or strength
Familiarity information: INSUBSTANTIAL used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lacking material form or substance; unreal
Synonyms:
insubstantial; unreal; unsubstantial
Context example:
an insubstantial mirage on the horizon
Similar:
aerial; aeriform; aery; airy; ethereal (characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; as impalpable or intangible as air)
shadowy; wraithlike (lacking in substance)
hollow (lacking in substance or character)
stringy (consisting of or containing string or strings)
Also:
immaterial; nonmaterial (not consisting of matter)
Attribute:
solidness; substantiality; substantialness (the quality of being substantial or having substance)
Antonym:
substantial (having substance or capable of being treated as fact; not imaginary)
Derivation:
insubstantiality (lacking substance or reality)
insubstantiality (lack of solid substance and strength)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Lacking in nutritive value
Context example:
an insubstantial and unsatisfying meal
Similar:
unwholesome (detrimental to physical or moral well-being)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Lacking solidity or strength
Synonyms:
flimsy; insubstantial
Context example:
vinyl siding has become the standard-bearer for cheap, insubstantial construction
Similar:
weak (wanting in physical strength)
Context examples
What an insubstantial, happy, foolish time it was!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It was worse when it began to be clothed upon with detestable attributes; and out of the shifting, insubstantial mists that had so long baffled his eye, there leaped up the sudden, definite presentment of a fiend.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
What an insubstantial, happy, foolish time!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
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