immateriality

noun

im·​ma·​te·​ri·​al·​i·​ty ˌi-mə-ˌtir-ē-ˈa-lə-tē How to pronounce immateriality (audio)
plural immaterialities
1
: the quality or state of being immaterial
2
: something immaterial

Examples of immateriality in a Sentence

the cost of such a lavish affair may be a matter of some immateriality to the wedding planner, but not to the person who has to foot the bill
Recent Examples on the Web
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The material’s very immateriality disguises the building’s mass, somehow making the immense, mountainous structure appear as light as a balloon, an extraordinary feat. Mark Lamster, Dallas News, 1 June 2023 McCarthy has pocketed his own liturgical, ecstatic style as one would a coin, a ring, a key, in the service of a more demanding and heartless inquiry through mathematics and physics into the immateriality, the indeterminacy, of reality. Joy Williams, Harper’s Magazine , 14 Dec. 2022 Grosse uses industrial spray paint on thin fabric, which is hung, not stretched, giving the painting a kind of liminal immateriality. Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 29 July 2019 This is a small, quiet show that potently traverses realms of materiality and immateriality, connecting ideas about what’s seen and unseen, and what’s in-between. Gayle Clemans, The Seattle Times, 7 Aug. 2018 In her immateriality, Melania well represents the status of women under Trump — absent, frozen out, erased from the picture. Rhonda Garelick, The Cut, 11 June 2018 For all their seeming immateriality, the internet and the cloud rely on a vast industrial infrastructure consisting of data centers linked through a sprawling network of fiber optics. James Glanz, New York Times, 18 Sep. 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1570, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of immateriality was in 1570

Dictionary Entries Near immateriality

Cite this Entry

“Immateriality.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/immateriality. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

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