insignificant Hear it!

insignificant Definition

in·sig·nifi·cant (in′sig nif′i kənt)

adjective

  1. having little or no meaning
  2. having little or no importance; trivial
  3. small; unimposing
  4. low in position, character, etc.; mean

Etymology: in- + significant

insignificant Related Forms
in′·sig·nif′i·cance noun or in′·sig·nif′i·cancy in′·sig·nif′i·cantly adverb
insignificant Synonyms

insignificant

modif.

irrelevant, petty, trifling; see trivial, unimportant.

insignificant Usage Examples

Preposition: in

  • comparison: Clearly, fines for speeding are insignificant in comparison with general taxation.
  • relation: As a really minor fraction of the cost of the pedestrianization the £ 23,000 is insignificant in relation to the whole scheme.

Modifies a noun

  • speck: Our solar system is an insignificant speck within that.
  • percentage: Service use becomes are children of insignificant percentage points group rates through.
  • minority: One must also add that except for an absolutely insignificant minority, American workers read only the bourgeois press.
  • sum: Myrtle Bennett then collected on her husband's $ 30,000 life insurance policy, a far from insignificant sum in those Depression years.
  • creature: Even a small and seemingly insignificant creature has a purpose and a role in the scheme of things.
  • proportion: Wild animals and plants seem to have provided an insignificant proportion of the diet.

Modifying Another Word

  • statistically: A statistically insignificant adopted in the tended to be.
  • seemingly: Sometimes these small, seemingly insignificant, baits will produce the biggest fish of the day.
  • numerically: Outside the Protestant community and numerically insignificant, The Roman Catholic community had one great claim on Charles ' good offices.
  • comparatively: He also wrote that the actual work of the Police department on the railroad is ' comparatively insignificant ' .
  • clinically: In any other context mitochondrial antibodies are clinically insignificant.
  • relatively: In response to my question, the heavens clearly do reflect relatively insignificant medical issues.

Used with adjective complement

  • seem: It makes anything the rest of us may suffer seem pretty insignificant.
  • appear: Human knowledge appears insignificant within this wider view of the universe.
  • feel: He feels utterly insignificant in the face of their farming ignorance.
  • become: Every time a sin becomes insignificant in the sight of the servant it becomes great in the sight of Allah.
  • consider: However, Temple's four film appearances in the 1940s and 1950s are considered insignificant.
  • remain: However, in a depressed economic climate with stagnant property values, this same market remains insignificant.
insignificant Quotes

There are even times when any assumption of dignity becomes ludicrous, and the traveller must, as Mungo Park once had to do,'lay down as a rule to make himself as useless and as insignificant as possible, as the only means of recovering his liberty'.

—Galton, Sir Francis

First, you know, a new theory is attacked as absurd; then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it.

—James,William

What characterizes a member of a minority group isthat he is forced to see himself as both exceptional and insignificant, marvelous and awful, good and evil.

—Mailer, Norman Kingsley