insubstantial as an adjective: - 1
- 2
- 3
insubstantial
adjective
1 insubstantial
Lacking material form or substance; unreal:
— As insubstantial as a dream.
— An insubstantial mirage on the horizon.
synonyms: unreal, unsubstantial.
Roget 160:
weak,
feeble,
debile†;
impotent
etc.
158;
relaxed,
unnerved,
etc.
v.;
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
etc.
v..
broken,
lame,
withered,
shattered,
shaken,
crazy,
shaky;
palsied
etc.
158;
decrepit.
languid,
poor,
infirm;
faint,
faintish†;
sickly
etc.
(disease)
655;
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
etc.
159†,
unsupported,
unaided,
unassisted;
aidless†,
defenseless
etc.
158;
cantilevered
(support)
215.
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
etc.
429.
... show more
Roget 4:
unsubstantial;
baseless,
groundless;
ungrounded;
without foundation,
having no foundation.
visionary
etc.
(imaginary)
515;
immaterial
etc.
137;
spectral
etc.
980;
dreamy;
shadowy;
ethereal,
airy;
cloud built,
cloud formed;
gossamery,
illusory,
insubstantial,
unreal.
vacant,
vacuous;
empty
etc.
187;
eviscerated;
blank,
hollow;
nominal;
null;
inane.
... show more
Roget 2:
inexistent†,
nonexistent
etc.
1;
negative,
blank;
missing,
omitted;
absent
etc.
187;
insubstantial,
shadowy,
spectral,
visionary.
unreal,
potential,
virtual;
baseless,
in nubibus [Lat.];
unsubstantial
etc.
4;
vain.
unborn,
uncreated†,
unbegotten,
unconceived,
unproduced,
unmade.
perished,
annihilated,
etc.
v.;
extinct,
exhausted,
gone,
lost,
vanished,
departed,
gone with the wind;
defunct
etc.
(dead)
360.
fabulous,
ideal
etc.
(imaginary)
515,
supposititious
etc.
514.
... show more
Dutch: onstoffelijk
2 insubstantial
Lacking in nutritive value.
3 insubstantial
Lacking solidity or strength:
— Vinyl siding has become the standard-bearer for cheap, insubstantial construction.
synonym: flimsy.
Moby thesaurus: 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 ... show more.
debug info: 0.0391