Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not firm or solid; weak or flimsy.
  • adjective Very small or negligible, as in importance, size, or amount.
  • adjective Lacking or appearing to lack substance or reality.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Unsubstantial.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective rare, rare Unsubstantial; not real or strong.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Lacking substance; not real or strong.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective lacking material form or substance; unreal
  • adjective lacking in nutritive value

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

in- +‎ substantial

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