Word.ws English Dictionary

unsubstantive

unsubstantive adjective: not having the form of a noun.

Adjective

unsubstantive (comparative more unsubstantive, superlative most unsubstantive)

  1. Not having the form of a noun.
  2. Not having any material substance.
    • Nests are formed by the removal of soil to create an unsubstantive space.2006, Walter Reinhart Tschinkel, The Fire Ants, page 103
  3. (broadly) Not having any factual substance.
    • Labour dismisses Cameron's interest in the environment as a cynical and unsubstantive part of his attempt to decontaminate the Tory brand.2009 January 16, Nicholas Watt, Patrick Wintour, “To deliver a low-carbon economy you have got to have a vision”, in The Guardian

Forms of unsubstantive

comparativemore unsubstantive
superlativemost unsubstantive

Origin of unsubstantive

From un- + substantive.

Questions about unsubstantive

What does unsubstantive mean?
Unsubstantive means not having the form of a noun.
What part of speech is unsubstantive?
Unsubstantive is an adjective.

Words near unsubstantive in the dictionary

  1. unsubstantiated
  2. unsubstantiatedly
  3. unsubstantiates
  4. unsubstantiating
  5. unsubstantiation
  6. unsubstantive
  7. unsubstitutability
  8. unsubstitutable
  9. unsubstitutably
  10. unsubstituted
  11. unsubsumable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unsubstantive (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: “unsubstantive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unsubstantive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.