unimportance

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Insignificance

Nouns

1. unimportance, insignificance, nothingness, immateriality, inconsequentiality, inconsequence; triviality, levity, frivolity, froth; paltriness, uselessness; disempowerment; matter of indifference; no object. See folly, mediocrity, shallowness.

2. (something unimportant) trivia, trifle, minutiae, [minor] details; drop in the ocean or bucket, pinprick, fleabite, molehill; nothing [worth speaking of], nothing particular, nothing to boast or speak of, not the end of the world; bosh; small matter, no great matter, trifling matter; mere joke, mere nothing; hardly or scarcely anything; no great shakes; child's play; small beer or potatoes.

3. (something of little value) toy, plaything, gimcrack, gewgaw, bauble, trinket, bagatelle, kickshaw, knickknack, trifle; trumpery, trash, rubbish, stuff, frippery; chaff, froth, bubble, smoke, cobweb; weed, refuse, scrum; joke, jest, snap of the fingers; fudge, fiddlesticks; pack of nonsense, straw, pin, fig, button, feather, two cents, halfpenny, penny, [brass] farthing; peppercorn, jot, rap, pinch of snuff, old song. Informal, red cent, row of pins, hill of beans, fifth wheel. Slang, mickey mouse, schmatte, chopped liver.

4. nobody, nonentity, nonperson, unperson, cipher, mediocrity, small fry, pipsqueak, nine days' wonder, flash in the pan, dummy, straw man; every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Informal, lightweight, no great shakes. Slang, squirt, zob, pencil dick, asswipe, chickenshit, fuckoff, schmendrick. See

nonexistence.

Verbs — not matter, signify nothing, not matter a straw; trifle, palter, fiddle, mess around, idle; make light of; dispense with; underestimate, belittle, downplay, play down, think or make little of, minimize, set no store by, not care a straw about; catch at straws, overestimate, not see the wood for the trees. Informal, not be worth a damn, continental, rap, or hang, cut no ice, underwhelm. Slang, suck.

Adjectives

1. of little, small, or no account or importance, unimportant; inconsequential, immaterial, unessential, nonessential; indifferent; subordinate, inferior, mediocre, average; small-time.

2. trifling, trivial, slight; puerile; airy, shallow; frivolous, petty, niggling, picayune, piddling; inane, ridiculous, ludicrous, farcical; finical, namby-pamby, wishy-washy, milk and water; inappreciable. Informal, ditsy, footling. Slang, mickey mouse, jerkwater, nowhere, pissant.

3. poor, paltry, pitiful; shabby, miserable, wretched, vile, scrubby, niggardly, scurvy, beggarly, worthless, cheap; not worth the pains, not worthwhile, not worth mentioning, not worth speaking of, not worth a thought, damn, or straw; beneath notice or consideration; futile, vain. Slang, measly, punk, dog-ass. See cheapness.

Adverbs — slightly, rather, somewhat, pretty well, tolerably.

Interjections — no matter! tut-tut! pshaw! pooh[-pooh]! bosh! humbug! fiddlesticks! fiddlededee! never mind! what of it! what's the odds! stuff and nonsense! Informal, skip it! Slang, nuts! baloney! bunk! big deal!

Quotations — History, n. an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools (Ambrose Bierce), My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office [the vice presidency] that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived (John Adams), I demonstrate by means of philosophy that the earth is round, and is inhabited on all sides; that it is insignificantly small, and is borne through the stars (Johannes Kepler).

Antonyms, see importance.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. immateriality, triviality, worthlessness; see insignificance .

III

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun Lack of importance: inconsequence, inconsequentially, inconsequentialness, indifference, insignificance, insignificancy. See CONCERN.