insignificance

[ in-sig-nif-i-kuhns ]

noun

1. the quality or condition of being insignificant; lack of importance or consequence.

Other Words From

• self-insig·nifi·cance noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of insignificance¹

First recorded in 1690–1700; insignific(ancy) + -ance

Example Sentences

Voted most likely to succeed in junior high school, he considered the insignificance: “All it meant was that a lot of people had heard of you. Who wants to be heard of anyway?”

From Los Angeles Times

“In something like fifty seconds, I was quite certain I was not. It took just about that time to measure the startling insignificance of this man who has set world agog.”

From Salon

Lola is a relative free spirit with an open heart but a sense of limits; Aimée’s performance emphasizes the essential innocence, or maybe insignificance, of her flirtations.

From New York Times

On Saturday evening in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, heavyweight boxing’s bureaucracy and politics will fizzle into insignificance.

From BBC

Almost always, she said, there is a predictable sequence in which people take-in an eclipse: it begins with a sense of wrongness and primal fear, followed by a feeling of connectedness and insignificance.

From BBC