How to Use insubstantial in a Sentence

insubstantial

adjective
Definition of insubstantialnext
Synonyms for insubstantialnext
  • Their contribution to the fund was insubstantial.
  • But the wilder the charges, the more insubstantial the case appeared.
    — Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 19 Nov. 2020
  • Just a few years ago, such wines were panned as insubstantial.
    — Bruce Schoenfeld, Saveur, 2 Sep. 2015
  • The drought made the already insubstantial dirt weak and powdery, and the piers of the shotgun houses sank into the earth.
    — Southern Living, 2 Sep. 2014
  • The drought made the already insubstantial dirt weak and powdery, and the piers of the shotgun houses sank into the earth.
    — Rick Bragg, Southern Living, 11 July 2017
  • The low-rise structure might look insubstantial next to the bulkier, mid-rise buildings that now edge the square between the big three skyscrapers.
    — Steven Litt, cleveland, 4 July 2021
  • The offer was dismissed as insubstantial by the U.S. and Mr. Liu couldn’t score a meeting with the president.
    — Lingling Wei, WSJ, 29 Apr. 2018
  • Some of them are as insubstantial as smoke, but others may be worth thinking about.
    — oregonlive, 1 Apr. 2020
  • That's less than half the number of Democrats in the county, but hardly an insubstantial number.
    — Chris Morris, Fortune, 20 July 2017
  • Scholze was bemused by the long theorems with their short proofs, which struck him as valid but insubstantial.
    — Quanta Magazine, 20 Sep. 2018
  • In central Illinois, many of those roads are paved with tar and chips or what appears to be a rather thin and insubstantial layer of asphalt.
    — Eric Bangeman, Ars Technica, 12 July 2018
  • And shoppers have to be persuaded to take a not-insubstantial risk, largely on the strength of online reviews alone.
    — Katherine Dunn, Fortune, 27 Aug. 2022
  • In the course of four days in August 2020, Kim raised the not-insubstantial sum needed to pay for Hong’s star, then took on the process of submitting an application.
    — Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2022
  • And how do post offices safely deal with such insubstantial ephemera?
    — Sue Wunder, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 May 2018
  • Most of the changes the ordinance makes to elections code are insubstantial and help streamline the processes and update language.
    — Emily Goodykoontz, Anchorage Daily News, 15 Jan. 2021
  • In the years since, the original game’s update schedule slowed to a crawl, and additions grew insubstantial, leading many players to burn out or move on.
    — Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2022
  • The investment Flex is making to achieve these targets is not insubstantial.
    — Patrick Moorhead, Forbes, 7 May 2021
  • Sarah Sze suspended snapshots of the New York sky on wires, forming an immense yet insubstantial orb.
    — Curbed, 11 Feb. 2022
  • On the other hand, a Boeing 777 is not insubstantial, and the technology employed by the ships is impressive.
    — Bucky McMahon, Esquire, 14 Sep. 2015
  • He's scored three goals and assisted a further four in his first six Serie A games this season, playing a not insubstantial part in Inter's 100% record.
    — SI.com, 4 Oct. 2019
  • The pleasure of Joan’s screen company is not insubstantial.
    — Glenn Kenny, New York Times, 7 Sep. 2017
  • UMass officials say the institutes are a $5 million drain on the school’s budget, which is not an insubstantial number.
    — Adrian Walker, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Apr. 2018
  • But inflation has driven down the value of the maximum fine to an insubstantial amount, he says—100 million rupiahs used to be worth a lot more.
    — Rachel Fobar, Animals, 28 Dec. 2021
  • Yet the justices in the Hague dismissed Nottebohm’s ties to Lichtenstein as insubstantial and invalid.
    — Udi Greenberg, The New Republic, 10 Nov. 2020
  • But as Blakemore shows in her brilliant novel, the spiritual life many of them extolled was as slant and insubstantial as Matthew Hopkins.
    — Los Angeles Times, 23 Aug. 2021
  • For all the pomp and skilful choreography, however, the results of the summit were insubstantial.
    — The Economist, 27 Apr. 2018
  • The Mexican actor has received praise from both critics and fans for his portrayal of the antagonist Namor, along with a not-insubstantial amount of thirst.
    — Philip Ellis, Men's Health, 27 Nov. 2022
  • Now a not-insubstantial segment of the AI research community is deeply concerned about this kind of scenario playing out in real life.
    — Melanie Mitchell, Quanta Magazine, 13 Dec. 2022
  • Breakfast Burrito Post-ride hunger is a beautiful thing not to be wasted on insubstantial meals.
    — The Editors, Outside Online, 4 May 2018
  • So far the new model feels insubstantial — casually diverting, full of shiny, pretty people, but short on chemistry where we are meant most to find it.
    — Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'insubstantial.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: