UNIMPORTANT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unimportant mean? 

• UNIMPORTANT (adjective)
  The adjective UNIMPORTANT has 2 senses:

1. not important

2. devoid of importance, meaning, or force

  Familiarity information: UNIMPORTANT used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNIMPORTANT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not important

Context example:

the question seems unimportant

Similar:

inconsequent; inconsequential (lacking worth or importance)

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

fiddling; footling; lilliputian; little; niggling; petty; picayune; piddling; piffling; trivial ((informal) small and of little importance)

lightweight (having no importance or influence)

nickel-and-dime; small-time (of minor importance)

potty ((British informal) trivial)

Also:

inessential; unessential (not basic or fundamental)

insignificant; unimportant (devoid of importance, meaning, or force)

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

Attribute:

importance (the quality of being important and worthy of note)

Antonym:

important (of great significance or value)

Derivation:

unimportance (the quality of not being important or worthy of note)

unimportance (the state of being humble and unimportant)

Sense 2

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)

Derivation:

unimportance (the quality of not being important or worthy of note)

unimportance (the state of being humble and unimportant)

 Context examples 

Where there is fortune to make the expenses of travelling unimportant, distance becomes no evil.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

No; the matter passed as unimportant.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“He has played a not unimportant part in this drama,” said he.

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

Indeed, I have found that it is usually in unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the charm to an investigation.

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

How to have this anxious business set to rights, and be admitted as cousins again, was the question: and it was a question which, in a more rational manner, neither Lady Russell nor Mr Elliot thought unimportant.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

When he returned, to understand how Fanny was situated, and perceived its ill effects, there seemed with him but one thing to be done; and that Fanny must have a horse was the resolute declaration with which he opposed whatever could be urged by the supineness of his mother, or the economy of his aunt, to make it appear unimportant.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Hannah had told me in the morning there was a letter for me, and when I went down to take it, almost certain that the long-looked for tidings were vouchsafed me at last, I found only an unimportant note from Mr. Briggs on business.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Curiosity and vanity were both engaged, and the temptation of immediate pleasure was too strong for a mind unused to make any sacrifice to right: he resolved to defer his Norfolk journey, resolved that writing should answer the purpose of it, or that its purpose was unimportant, and staid.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

"The dance?" He dismissed all the dances he had given with a snap of his fingers. "Old sport, the dance is unimportant."

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)