How to Use insubstantial in a Sentence

insubstantial

adjective

• 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.
  — Rick Bragg, Southern Living, 11 July 2017
• 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 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
• How could something so insubstantial have any structural benefit?
  — Helen Czerski, WSJ, 30 Nov. 2023
• Unlike down's other stand-in, foam (which tends to hold its shape well, but can feel light and insubstantial, says Cutler), down alternatives are a hypoallergenic, synthetic option that mimics the durability, softness, and look of down.
  — Michelle Rostamian, Peoplemag, 29 Aug. 2023

Last Updated: 2 Nov 2024