Definitions

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

  • adjective Not significant, especially.
  • adjective Lacking in importance; trivial.
  • adjective Lacking power, position, or value; worthy of little regard.
  • adjective Small in size or amount.
  • adjective Having little or no meaning.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not significant; void of signification; without meaning.
  • Answering no purpose; having no weight or effect; unimportant; trivial.
  • Without weight of character; mean; contemptible: as, an insignificant fellow.

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

  • adjective Not significant; void of signification, sense, or import; meaningless.
  • adjective Having no weight or effect; answering no purpose; unimportant; valueless; futile.
  • adjective Without weight of character or social standing; mean; contemptible.

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

  • adjective Not significant; not important, consequential, or having a noticeable effect.

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

  • adjective devoid of importance, meaning, or force
  • adjective signifying nothing
  • adjective not worthy of notice
  • adjective of little importance or influence or power; of minor status

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word insignificant.

Examples

  • _insignificant_ persons; 'consequently, had it been any fault to do so, each alike was caught in that fault; and insignificant as the people might be, if they _could_ be' immortalized, 'then we have Schlosser himself confessing to the possibility that poetic splendor should create a secondary interest where originally there had been none.

    Note Book of an English Opium-Eater Thomas De Quincey 1822

  • For every basis point the market moves, Jefferies said it loses or gains $37,000, which it called insignificant.

    Jefferies Amplifies Its Defense of European Positions Brett Philbin 2011

  • If you're wondering who used the other ticket, Caetano says he took what he calls his insignificant other, because his wife is bedridden.

    10connects.com Local News 2009

  • Ford is still bumming around the galaxy, but notes his article on a certain insignificant blue-green orb undergoing revision, and Marvin is still Marvin.

    So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish by Douglas Adams « I Can’t Stop Reading! 2008

  • Ford is still bumming around the galaxy, but notes his article on a certain insignificant blue-green orb undergoing revision, and Marvin is still Marvin.

    02 « June « 2008 « I Can’t Stop Reading! 2008

  • A 1792 compilation by several natural historians of insects includes comments such as the following: each insect, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, is "adapted for procuring its particular pleasures" (2); indeed, every insect, like every creature, "was formed for itself, and each allowed to seize as great a quantity of happiness from the universal stock ... each was formed to make the happiness of each" (6).

    The Loves of Plants and Animals: Romantic Science and the Pleasures of Nature 2001

  • The other illuminati are equally insignificant from a social point of view: Mary Hare, an elderly spinster; Ruth Godbold, a poor and hard-working housewife; and Alf Dubbo, a part-Aboriginal painter.

    Patrick White - Existential Explorer 2001

  • At the bottom of the organizational chart is something that is referred to as an insignificant green dot.

    The Leader In You Stuart R. Levine 1993

  • "I should like to know what flower you call insignificant," said

    Rich Enough a tale of the times Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee

  • But the word insignificant could never have been applied to him.

    My day : reminiscences of a long life, 1909

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.