unsubstantiality

Roget category 4

1. Words expressing abstract relations
› 1.1. Existence
›› 1.1.2. Being, in the concrete

#4. Unsubstantiality

noun

unsubstantiality^†, insubstantiality — nothingness, nihility^† — no degree, no part, no quantity, no thing.
nothing, naught, nil, nullity, zero, cipher, no one, nobody — never a one, ne'er a one [Contr.] — no such thing, none in the world — nothing whatever, nothing at all, nothing on earth — not a particle etc. (smallness) 32 — all talk, moonshine, stuff and nonsense — matter of no importance, matter of no consequence.
thing of naught, man of straw, John Doe and Richard Roe, faggot voter — nominis umbra [Lat.], nonentity — flash in the pan, vox et praeterea nihil [Lat.].
shadow — phantom etc. (fallacy of vision) 443 — dream etc. (imagination) 515 — ignis fatuus [Lat.] etc. (luminary) 423 — such stuff as dreams are made of" [Tempest]; air, thin air, vapor — bubble etc. 353 — baseless fabric of a vision" [Tempest]; mockery.
hollowness, blank — void etc. (absence) 187.
inanity, fool's paradise.

verb

vanish, evaporate, fade, dissolve, melt away — disappear etc. 449.

adjective

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.

phrase

there's nothing in it — an ocean of dreams without a sound" [Shelley].

The content on this page comes straight from Project Gutenberg Etext of Roget's Thesaurus No. Two, which consists of the acclaimed work by Peter Mark Roget augmented with more recent material. Some changes were made to the formatting for improved readability.

Bold numbers signify related Roget categories. A dagger symbol (†) indicates archaic words and expressions no longer in common use.

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