insubstantiality
- noun
- /ˌɪnsəˌstænʃiˈælɪti/
:
insustancialidad
- During the debate, the speaker highlighted the insubstantiality of the evidence presented.
Examples
-
The painting's beauty lies in its insubstantiality, capturing fleeting moments rather than concrete forms.
-
"This insubstantiality, this virtualness, is the basis of everything you see," he says.
Fiction book (1991) -
How could I betray you when to expose your insubstantiality is to reveal my own?
Fiction book (1996) -
We are caught between aspirations to perfection and the uncomfortable awareness of the fickleness and insubstantiality of what is thought and said in each generation.
Academic text (1992) -
Part of the difficulty of translating Nixon into fictional flesh and blood is his insubstantiality.
Academic text (1995) -
Fancy, whose very name suggests airy insubstantiality, appears in an upper-story window, at a distance from the choir below, outside in the dark night.
Academic text (2016) -
Here, with one mighty stroke, El Greco reveals the insubstantiality of earthly things and their metaphysical significance.
Academic text (1992) -
A quiet night steeped deep in summer, yielding itself to all manner of insubstantialities, desires perfectly preserved in the bitterness of mind.
Fiction book (2000) -
For Pater, they share an intrinsic insubstantiality—not that they are without content, but they are most meaningful when they appear undetermined.
Academic text (2000) -
The motorpool Plymouth soars across the Bay, suspended between the insubstantialities of sky and water, its 2.99 human beings equally suspended, each in his own intriguing purgatory of confusing emotions.
Fiction book (1994)
Synonyms
1
5.2
A lack of strength in an argument or evidence
1
4.4
Being weak and not well made so it breaks or fails easily
A lack of real substance or value that leaves you unsatisfied
A weak or slight state often about ideas and relationships
The state of having no proof or good reason
Antonyms
How Substantial
188
4.3
2
5.5
2
4.2
1
3.3
7
5.8
6
5.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
insubstantiality = insubstantial (semi-transparent) = in + substant + ial + ity
The suffix '-ity' regularly forms abstract nouns from adjectives, so the meaning 'state or quality of being insubstantial' is directly predictable from 'insubstantial'.
Etymology
Insubstantiality starts with in- ('not') and has the part substance ('solid' or 'real'), just like in the word substantial. So, insubstantiality means 'not solid or real' — lacking strength, weight, or convincing power.