insubstantial

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: in=sub=stan=tial

CIDE DICTIONARY

insubstantial, a. 

 Unsubstantial; not real or strong.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

insubstantial, adj.
1 lacking solidity or substance.
2 not real.

Derivative

insubstantiality n. insubstantially adv.

Etymology

LL insubstantialis (as IN-(1), SUBSTANTIAL)

THESAURUS

insubstantial

adulterated, airy, asomatous, astral, attenuate, attenuated, bodiless, boyish, brittle, capricious, changeable, chimerical, corruptible, cut, dangerous, decarnate, decarnated, deciduous, decrepit, defalcation, deficiency, deficit, delicate, desultory, diaphanous, dilute, diluted, discarnate, disembodied, dying, ephemeral, ethereal, evanescent, extramundane, fading, false, fancied, fanciful, fantastic, feeble, fickle, fine, fine-drawn, finespun, fleeting, flimsy, flitting, fly-by-night, flying, fragile, frail, fugacious, fugitive, gaseous, gauzy, ghostly, girlish, gossamer, gracile, hallucinatory, illusive, illusory, imaginary, imagined, immaterial, impalpable, impermanent, impetuous, imponderable, impulsive, inadequacy, inconclusive, inconstant, incorporate, incorporeal, infirm, insecure, insignificant, insufficiency, intangible, lack, lacy, light, metaphysical, misty, momentary, mortal, mutable, nondurable, nonmaterial, nonpermanent, nonphysical, nonsubstantial, occult, otherworldly, paltry, papery, passing, paucity, perilous, perishable, phantasmal, phantom, poor, poverty, precarious, provisional, psychic, puny, rare, rarefied, risky, scant, scantiness, scarceness, shadowy, shaky, shifting, shifty, short-lived, shortage, slender, slenderish, slight, slight-made, slim, slimmish, slinky, slippery, small, spiritual, subtile, subtle, supernatural, svelte, sylphlike, temporal, temporary, tentative, tenuous, thin, thin-bodied, thin-set, thin-spun, thinned, thinned-out, thinnish, threadlike, ticklish, transient, transitive, transitory, transmundane, treacherous, uncompact, uncompressed, unconcrete, undependable, underage, undurable, unearthly, unembodied, unenduring, unextended, unfaithworthy, unfleshly, unphysical, unproved, unreal, unreliable, unrigorous, unsolid, unsound, unstable, unsteadfast, unsteady, unsubstanced, unsubstantial, unsure, unsustained, untrustworthy, unworldly, vague, vaporous, visionary, volatile, wasp-waisted, watered, watered-down, watery, weak, weightless, willowy, windy, wiredrawn, wispy

ROGET THESAURUS

insubstantial

Inexistence

N inexistence, nonexistence, nonsubsistence, nonentity, nil, negativeness, nullity, nihility, nihilism, tabula rasa, blank, abeyance, absence, no such thing, nonbeing, nothingness, oblivion, annihilation, extinction, extinguishment, extirpation, Nirvana, obliteration, inexistent, nonexistent, negative, blank, missing, omitted, absent, insubstantial, shadowy, spectral, visionary, unreal, potential, virtual, baseless, in nubibus, unsubstantial, vain, unborn, uncreated, unbegotten, unconceived, unproduced, unmade, perished, annihilated extinct, exhausted, gone, lost, vanished, departed, gone with the wind, defunct, fabulous, ideal, supposititious &c, negatively, virtually, non ens.

Unsubstantiality

N unsubstantiality, insubstantiality, nothingness, nihility, no degree, no part, no quantity, no thing, nothing, naught, nil, nullity, zero, cipher, no one, nobody, never a one, ne'er a one, no such thing, none in the world, nothing whatever, nothing at all, nothing on earth, not a particle, all talk, moonshine, stuff and nonsense, matter of no importance, matter of no consequence, thing of naught, man of straw, John Doe and Richard Roe, faggot voter, nominis umbra, nonentity, flash in the pan, vox et praeterea nihil, shadow, phantom, dream, ignis fatuus, such stuff as dreams are made of, air, thin air, vapor, bubble, baseless fabric of a vision, mockery, hollowness, blank, void, inanity, fool's paradise, unsubstantial, baseless, groundless, ungrounded, without foundation, having no foundation, visionary, immaterial, spectral, dreamy, shadowy, ethereal, airy, cloud built, cloud formed, gossamery, illusory, insubstantial, unreal, vacant, vacuous, empty, eviscerated, blank, hollow, nominal, null, inane, there's nothing in it, an ocean of dreams without a sound.

Weakness

N weakness, debility, atony, relaxation, languor, enervation, impotence, infirmity, effeminacy, feminality, fragility, flaccidity, inactivity, anaemia, bloodlessness, deficiency of blood, poverty of blood, declension of strength, loss of strength, failure of strength, delicacy, invalidation, decrepitude, asthenia, adynamy, cachexy, cachexia, sprain, strain, reed, thread, rope of sand, house of cards, softling, weakling, infant, youth, weak, feeble, debile, impotent, relaxed, unnerved sapless, strengthless, powerless, weakly, unstrung, flaccid, adynamic, asthenic, nervous, soft, effeminate, feminate, womanly, frail, fragile, shattery, flimsy, unsubstantial, insubstantial, gimcrack, gingerbread, rickety, creaky, creaking, cranky, craichy, drooping, tottering, broken, lame, withered, shattered, shaken, crazy, shaky, palsied, decrepit, languid, poor, infirm, faint, faintish, sickly, dull, slack, evanid, spent, short-winded, effete, weather-beaten, decayed, rotten, worn, seedy, languishing, wasted, washy, laid low, pulled down, the worse for wear, unstrengthened, unsupported, unaided, unassisted, aidless, defenseless, cantilevered (support), on its last legs, weak as a child, weak as a baby, weak as a chicken, weak as a cat, weak as a rat, weak as water, weak as water gruel, weak as gingerbread, weak as milk and water, colorless, non sum qualis eram.