Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Too small to be noticed or make a significant difference; negligible.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not appreciable; not to be valued or estimated; hence, of no consequence.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Not appreciable; too small to be perceived; incapable of being duly valued or estimated.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective insignificant, undetectable, not able to be noticed

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective too small to make a significant difference

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

negative in- + appreciable

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Examples

  • Again, and with a swiftness an inappreciable fraction of time quicker than Ponta's, he ducked forward.

    Chapter 5 2010

  • In his book, Brillat-Savarin regarded hearing a more subtle mechanism than taste: Taste is not so richly endowed as hearing; the latter can appreciate and compare many sounds at the same time; but taste, on the other hand, is actually simple — that is to say, that two flavours at one are equally inappreciable.

    Sing for your supper Matthew Guerrieri 2007

  • In his book, Brillat-Savarin regarded hearing a more subtle mechanism than taste: Taste is not so richly endowed as hearing; the latter can appreciate and compare many sounds at the same time; but taste, on the other hand, is actually simple — that is to say, that two flavours at one are equally inappreciable.

    Archive 2007-05-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2007

  • Where once there was an inappreciable number of studies of dog cognition and behavior, there are now conferences on the dog, research groups devoted to studying the dog, experimental and ethological studies on the dog in the United States and abroad, and dog research results sprinkled through scientific journals.

    INSIDE OF A DOG ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ 2009

  • Where once there was an inappreciable number of studies of dog cognition and behavior, there are now conferences on the dog, research groups devoted to studying the dog, experimental and ethological studies on the dog in the United States and abroad, and dog research results sprinkled through scientific journals.

    INSIDE OF A DOG ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ 2009

  • Taking, then, an agitating last view of a locket which circumstances had rendered inappreciable to her, 'Ah! not in vain,' she cried, 'even now shall I lose what once was a token so bewitching ...

    Camilla 2008

  • I told your father, in the joy of meeting once more a subject of such inappreciable loyalty, of the sacrifices I would make to assure the assistance of Charles of Burgundy to so gallant an undertaking as that proposed to him by the faithful Oxford.

    Anne of Geierstein 2008

  • He permitted his eyes for a moment to fasten upon her, to admire her, and to enjoy triumphantly her confusion in silence: 'Ah, beauteous tyrant!' he then cried; 'if this instant were less inappreciable, in what language could I upbraid thy unexampled abuse of power?

    Camilla 2008

  • I say that this functional difference is vast, unfathomable, and truly infinite in its consequences; and I say at the same time, that it may depend upon structural differences which shall be absolutely inappreciable to us with our present means of investigation.

    Essays 2007

  • I said just now that the Horse eventually died and became converted into the same inorganic substances from whence all but an inappreciable fraction of its substance demonstrably originated, so that the actual wanderings of matter are as remarkable as the transmigrations of the soul fabled by Indian tradition.

    Essays 2007

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