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INSIGNIFICANT
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Small and unimpressive
Example:
an insignificant sum of money
Synonyms:
dinky; insignificant
Classified under:
Similar:
little; small (limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent)
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Of little importance or influence or power; of minor status
Example:
peanut politicians
Synonyms:
insignificant; peanut
Classified under:
Similar:
minor (of lesser importance or stature or rank)
Derivation:
insignificance (the quality of having little or no significance)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Signifying nothing
Example:
insignificant sounds
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
meaningless; nonmeaningful (having no meaning or direction or purpose)
Derivation:
insignificance (the quality of having little or no significance)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Devoid of importance, meaning, or force
Synonyms:
insignificant; unimportant
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
hole-and-corner; hole-in-corner (relating to the peripheral and unimportant aspects of life)
flimsy; fragile; slight; tenuous; thin (lacking substance or significance)
inappreciable (too small to make a significant difference)
light (having little importance)
superficial; trivial (of little substance or significance)
Also:
unimportant (not important)
meaningless; nonmeaningful (having no meaning or direction or purpose)
Attribute:
significance (the quality of being significant)
Antonym:
significant (important in effect or meaning)
Derivation:
insignificance (the quality of having little or no significance)
Context examples:
She spoke in a beautiful, rich voice, with the most heart-broken thrill in it, but I could not conceal from myself that she appeared to be one of the most robust persons that I had ever seen, and I was surprised to notice that she shot arch little questioning glances at me, as if the admiration even of so insignificant a person were of some interest to her.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
This applies only if the difference in the rate at which the active ingredient or moiety becomes available at the site of drug action is intentional and is reflected in the proposed labeling, is not essential to the attainment of effective body drug concentrations on chronic use, and is considered medically insignificant for the drug (21CFR320.1).
(Bioequivalence, NCI Thesaurus)
Then their brother, who was a little insignificant dwarf, went out to seek for his brothers: but when he had found them they only laughed at him, to think that he, who was so young and simple, should try to travel through the world, when they, who were so much wiser, had been unable to get on.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Behold me, then, at the office of the Daily Gazette, on the staff of which I was a most insignificant unit, with the settled determination that very night, if possible, to find the quest which should be worthy of my Gladys!
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Miss de Bourgh was pale and sickly; her features, though not plain, were insignificant; and she spoke very little, except in a low voice, to Mrs. Jenkinson, in whose appearance there was nothing remarkable, and who was entirely engaged in listening to what she said, and placing a screen in the proper direction before her eyes.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
She was as insignificant, and perhaps as portionless, as Isabella; and if the heir of the Tilney property had not grandeur and wealth enough in himself, at what point of interest were the demands of his younger brother to rest?
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I hope the gentle reader will excuse me for dwelling on these and the like particulars, which, however insignificant they may appear to groveling vulgar minds, yet will certainly help a philosopher to enlarge his thoughts and imagination, and apply them to the benefit of public as well as private life, which was my sole design in presenting this and other accounts of my travels to the world; wherein I have been chiefly studious of truth, without affecting any ornaments of learning or of style.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
It is better, therefore, for the insignificant to keep out of his way, lest, in his progress, he should trample them down.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
If a part is insignificant, the greater our credit in making anything of it.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
How I had chafed and longed for the wonders of town, and yet, now that I had seen more than my wildest dreams had ever deemed possible, my eyes had rested upon nothing which was so sweet and so restful as our own little sitting-room, with its terra-cotta-coloured walls, and those trifles which are so insignificant in themselves, and yet so rich in memories—the blow-fish from the Moluccas, the narwhal’s horn from the Arctic, and the picture of the Ca Ira, with Lord Hotham in chase!
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
