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 ; notimportant ,consequential , or having anoticeable 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.
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Examples
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_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
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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
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If you're wondering who used the other ticket, Caetano says he took what he calls his insignificant other, because his wife is bedridden.
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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"I should like to know what flower you call insignificant," said
Rich Enough a tale of the times Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee
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But the word insignificant could never have been applied to him.
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