Word.ws English Dictionary

unsubstantial

unsubstantial adjective: insubstantial.

Adjective

unsubstantial (comparative more unsubstantial, superlative most unsubstantial)

  1. (archaic) Insubstantial.
    • What boots it, that my Fortune decks me thus / With unſubſtantial Plumes; when my Heart groans / Beneath the gay Capariſon, and Love / With unrequited Paſſion wounds my Soul!1749, [Tobias George Smollett], The Regicide: Or, James the First, of Scotland. A Tragedy. […], London: […] [F]or the benefit of the author, →OCLC, Act III, scene iv, page 37
    • They are (said he) meer phantoms of ignorance and credulity, swelled up in the repetition, like those unsubstantial bubbles which the boys blow up in sopasuds with a tobacco pipe.1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 89, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume III, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC

unsubstantial meaning in Tamil, Bengali and Kannada

unsubstantial in Tamil

பிழம்புருவல்லாத, ஆவியுருவான, உருவானதாயிராத, உருப்படியாயிராத, திடமற்ற, உறுதிப்பாடில்லாத

unsubstantial in Bengali

unsubstantial, false, fake, non-existent
ভুয়া bhuẏa

unsubstantial in Kannada

ಪೊಳ್ಳು, ಜೊಳ್ಳು, ಜಳ್ಳು

Examples of unsubstantial in a sentence

  • Within a minute afterward he was, to all outward appearance, as unsubstantial as ever.1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:
  • Psychoanalysis, the modern science of reading dreams, has taught us to take heed of these unsubstantial images.1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 8:

Synonyms of unsubstantial

All synonyms of unsubstantial

Forms of unsubstantial

comparativemore unsubstantial
superlativemost unsubstantial

Origin of unsubstantial

From un- + substantial.

Words formed from unsubstantial

Questions about unsubstantial

What does unsubstantial mean?
Unsubstantial means insubstantial.
What is unsubstantial in Tamil?
Unsubstantial in Tamil is பிழம்புருவல்லாத, ஆவியுருவான, உருவானதாயிராத. See Unsubstantial meaning in Tamil.
How do you use unsubstantial in a sentence?
Within a minute afterward he was, to all outward appearance, as unsubstantial as ever.
What part of speech is unsubstantial?
Unsubstantial is an adjective.

Words near unsubstantial in the dictionary

  1. unsubsidised
  2. unsubsidized
  3. unsubstanced
  4. unsubstant
  5. unsubstantiable
  6. unsubstantial
  7. unsubstantialise
  8. unsubstantialities
  9. unsubstantiality
  10. unsubstantialize
  11. unsubstantialized

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unsubstantial (page history and authors); unsubstantial (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ভুয়া (Bengali) (page history and authors); unsubstantial (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: “unsubstantial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unsubstantial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.