immaterial

comparative more immaterial · superlative most immaterial

1. Having no matter or substance; incorporeal.

   Some believe that because ghosts are immaterial, they can pass through walls.

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   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?

   1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XXI, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page 118

   Synonyms: intangible, nonmaterial, unmaterial, airy, aery, ethereal, diaphanous, insubstantial · Antonyms: corporeal, material, tangible, actual, bodily, choical, corporeal, concrete

2. Of the nature of the soul or spirit; spiritual.

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   [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.

   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

3. figurativelyOf no importance; inconsequential, insignificant, unimportant.

   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; […]

   1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], chapter 1, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], part 1st, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, →OCLC, page 11

   Synonyms: base, contemptible, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, foolish, for the birds, futile, frivolous, idle · Antonyms: big, central, consequential, critical, crucial, epochful, essential, extraordinary

4. figurativelyrareHaving or seeming to have very little substance; insubstantial, slight.

   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— […]

   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

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   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.

   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: diaphanous, flimsy, gossamer, airy, aery, ethereal, diaphanous, insubstantial

5. figurativelylawEspecially of evidence; chiefly followed by to: not associated in any way that is important or useful to the context being discussed; irrelevant.

   Objection, your Honour! The defendant’s criminal record is immaterial to this case.

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   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.

   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

   Synonyms: neither here nor there, ungermane, arbitrary, betwixt and between, incoherent, independent, irrelative, irrespective · Antonyms: germane, material, pertinent, relevant, affiliated, allied, apposite, associated

plural immaterials

1. countablein pluralA being or entity having no matter or substance.
2. countablein pluralA thing which is abstract or intangible; (uncountable) chiefly preceded by the: things which are abstract or intangible considered collectively.

   And we do absolutely know that these men's inborn temperaments have remained unchanged through all the vicissitudes of their material affairs. Let us see how it is with their immaterials.

   1906, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “What Is Man? Chapter VI. Instinct and Thought.”, in What Is Man? And Other Essays, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, published May 1917, page 107

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   Lodge immaterials in thy Head: aſcend unto inviſibles: fill thy Spirit vvith Spirituals, vvith the myſteries of Faith, the magnalities of Religion, and thy Life vvith the Honour of God; […]

   c. 1670s (date written), Thomas Brown [i.e., Thomas Browne], “Sect[ion] XIV”, in John Jeffery, editor, Christian Morals, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] [A]t the University-Press, for Cornelius Crownfield printer to the University; and are to be sold by Mr. Knapton […]; and Mr. [John] Morphew […], published 1716, →OCLC, part III, page 100