immaterial
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌɪ.məˈtɪə.ɹɪ.əl/
ipa: /ˌɪ.məˈtɪ.ɹi.əl/
ipa: /ˌɪ.məˈti.ɹi.əl/
rhymes: -ɪɹiəl
Forms: form: more immaterial
form: most immaterial
Etymology: The adjective is derived from Late Middle English immaterial, inmateriall (“incorporeal; spiritual”), from Middle French immateriel (“not material”) (modern French immatériel), and from its etymon Medieval Latin immāteriālis (“not material”), from Latin im- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘not’)) + māteriālis (“made of matter, material”) (from māteria (“matter, substance, material”) (from māter, from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr, + ia) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship)). The English word is analysable as im- + material.
The noun is derived from the adjective.
Senses: examples: text: Some believe that because ghosts are immaterial, they can pass through walls.
text: You feel like a disembodied spirit, immaterial; and you seem to be able to touch beauty as though it were a palpable thing; and you feel an intimate communion with the breeze, and with the trees breaking into leaf, and with the iridescence of the river. You feel like God. Can you explain that to me?
ref: 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XXI, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page 118:
synonyms: word: intangible
word: nonmaterial
word: unmaterial
word: airy
word: aery
word: ethereal
word: immaterial
word: insubstantial
word: tenuous
word: unreal
word: unsubstantial
antonyms: word: corporeal
word: material
word: tangible
word: insubstantial
word: superficial
glosses: Having no matter or substance; incorporeal.
examples: text: [T]here are ſome beings in the vvorld vvhich cannot depend upon matter or motion, i.e. that there are ſome ſpiritual and immaterial ſubstances or Beings […] If there be then ſuch things in the vvorld vvhich matter and motion cannot be the cauſes of, then there are certainly spiritual and immaterial Beings, and that I ſhall make appear both as to the minds of men, and to ſome extraordinary effects vvhich are produced in the vvorld.
ref: 1662, Edward Stillingfleet, “Of the Being of God”, in Origines Sacræ, or A Rational Account of the Grounds of Christian Faith, […], London: […] R[obert] W[hite] for Henry Mortlock […], →OCLC, book III, page 411:
glosses: Of the nature of the soul or spirit; spiritual.
examples: text: He has also been good enough to recommend to me many tradesmen who are ready to supply these articles in any quantities; each of whom has been here already a dozen times, cap in hand, and vowing that it is quite immaterial when I pay—which is very kind of them; […]
ref: 1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], chapter 1, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], part 1st, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, →OCLC, page 11:
synonyms: word: base
word: contemptible
word: foolish
word: for the birds
word: futile
word: frivolous
word: idle
word: ignorable
word: immaterial
word: inconsequential
word: inconsiderable
word: indifferent
word: insignificant
word: like a fart in a windstorm
word: meager
word: mean
word: minor
word: negligible
word: nothingburger
word: nondescript
word: paltry
word: petty
word: picayune
word: picayunish
word: piddling
word: piddly
word: pissant
word: pitiful
word: pointless
word: silly
word: simple
word: slight
word: tin-pot
word: trifling
word: trivial
word: two-bit
word: unimportant
word: unweighty
word: vain
word: worthless
word: wretched
antonyms: word: unimportant
word: ignorable
word: inconsequential
word: insignificant
word: minor
word: negligible
word: trivial
word: unremarkable
glosses: Of no importance; inconsequential, insignificant, unimportant.
examples: text: No, vvhy art thou then exaſperate, thou idle, / immaterial ſkeine of ſleiue ſilke; thou greene ſacenet flap for a ſore eye, thou toſſell of a prodigalls purſe— […]
ref: c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], signature K, recto:
text: Mr. Woodhouse considered eight persons at dinner together as the utmost that his nerves could bear—and here was a ninth— […] She [Emma] comforted her father better than she could comfort herself, by representing that though he certainly would make them nine, yet he always said so little, that the increase of noise would be very immaterial.
ref: 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Emma: […], volume II, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, pages 303–304:
synonyms: word: diaphanous
word: flimsy
word: gossamer
word: airy
word: aery
word: ethereal
word: immaterial
word: insubstantial
word: tenuous
word: unreal
word: unsubstantial
glosses: Having or seeming to have very little substance; insubstantial, slight.
examples: text: Objection, your Honour! The defendant’s criminal record is immaterial to this case.
text: He was perpetually at her side, trying, apparently, to preserve the thread of a disconnected talk, the fate of which was, to judge by her face, profoundly immaterial to the young lady.
ref: 1875 January–December, Henry James, Jr., “Christina”, in Roderick Hudson, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., published 1876, →OCLC, page 178:
topics: law
synonyms: word: neither here nor there
word: ungermane
word: arbitrary
word: betwixt and between
word: incoherent
word: independent
word: irrelative
word: irrespective
word: neither here nor there
word: self-standing
word: separate
word: unallied
word: unconnected
word: unimportant
word: unrelated
antonyms: word: germane
word: material
word: pertinent
word: relevant
word: unconnected
glosses: Especially of evidence; chiefly followed by to: not associated in any way that is important or useful to the context being discussed; irrelevant.
Derived terms: word: immaterialism
word: immaterialist
word: immateriality
word: immaterialize
word: immaterialized
word: immaterially
word: immaterialness
Related terms: material
materiality
materially
matter
nonmaterial
nonmaterialism
nonmaterialist
nonmaterialistic
nonmateriality
nonmaterially
unmaterial
unmaterialised
unmaterialized
unmaterialist
unmaterialistic
unmaterialistically