insubstantial
insubstantial adjective: lacking substance; not real or strong.
Adjective
insubstantial (comparative more insubstantial, superlative most insubstantial)
- Lacking substance; not real or strong.
- The bridge was insubstantial and would not safely carry a car.
- By manipulating the flow of magic, Eragon quickly descended from the Ra'zac's lair—which the insubstantial wall of stone once again hid—to the ledge.2008, Christopher Paolini, “Rider and Ra'zac”, in Brisingr, pages 67-8
- Synonyms:
- unsubstantial, airy, aery, ethereal, diaphanous, immaterial, tenuous, unreal
insubstantial meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
insubstantial in Hindi
- insubstantial
- क्षुद्र kṣudra
- insubstantial, pointless, nonsensical
- थोथा thothā
- insubstantial, worthless, meaningless
- खोखला khokhlā
insubstantial in Tamil
- உண்மை அல்லாத, கற்பனையான, வலுவற்ற, அற்ப, சொற்ப
insubstantial in Urdu
- غیرحقیقی, خیالی
insubstantial in Bengali
- অসার, ভিত্তিহীন, তুচ্ছ, দুর্বল
More languagesFewer languages
- insubstantial in Malayalam
- ബലമില്ലാത്ത, ബലഹീനമായ, ദുർബ്ബലം, പെട്ടെന്നു പൊട്ടാവുന്ന
- insubstantial in Kannada
- ಅವಾಸ್ತವಿಕ, ಕಾಲ್ಪನಿಕ, ಹುರುಳಿಲ್ಲದ, ತಿರುಳಿಲ್ಲದ
Examples of insubstantial in a sentence
- While I was astrally projecting, I felt my soul pass through many insubstantial netherworlds.
- It's a weak form of phobophage - a fear-eater, mostly insubstantial."
- Note also that we can always use nominalization to substantify an insubstantial object.
Synonyms of insubstantial
Antonyms
Forms of insubstantial
| comparative | more insubstantial |
|---|---|
| superlative | most insubstantial |
Origin of insubstantial
Probably from Middle French insubstantiel, from Latin insubstantiālis, from in- + substantiālis. By surface analysis, in- + substantial.
Words formed from insubstantial
Questions about insubstantial
- What does insubstantial mean?
- Insubstantial means lacking substance; not real or strong.
- What is insubstantial in Hindi?
- Insubstantial in Hindi is क्षुद्र (kṣudra), थोथा (thothā), खोखला (khokhlā). See Insubstantial meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is insubstantial?
- Insubstantial is an adjective.
Words near insubstantial in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: insubstantial (page history and authors); क्षुद्र (Hindi) (page history and authors); insubstantial (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); insubstantial (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Insubstantial (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); insubstantial (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); insubstantial (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “insubstantial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/insubstantial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.