negligible

adjective

neg·​li·​gi·​ble ˈne-gli-jə-bəl 

: so small or unimportant or of so little consequence as to warrant little or no attention : trifling

a negligible error

last year sales were negligible

a negligible risk

a negligible effect

negligibility

ˌne-gli-jə-ˈbi-lə-tē 

noun

negligibly

ˈne-gli-jə-blē 

adverb

Did you know?

Negligible comes from the same Latin verb as neglect, so something negligible is literally "neglectable". If an accident results in negligible damage to your car, you should be thankful. If two years of intense focus on testing in the classroom results in a negligible improvement in student test scores, it's probably time to try something new.

Synonyms

• nominal
• slight
• insignificant
• trivial
• tiny

Examples of negligible in a Sentence

A negligible amount of damage was done to the vehicle.

The price difference was negligible.

Recent Examples on the Web

So the political implications to this are negligible. —Fiction Non Fiction june 26, Literary Hub, 26 June 2025

The team still has to fill out their roster, so the savings may be negligible. —Tony East, Forbes.com, 17 June 2025

But in the end, the parade attracted limited crowds and the impact on DC/DOX was negligible. —Matthew Carey, Deadline, 16 June 2025

That is not negligible, but it’s unsurprisingly outpaced by credit and debit cards. —Antoinette Burton, Chicago Tribune, 16 June 2025

Word History

Etymology

Latinization of French négligeable, from négliger "to disregard, neglect" (going back to Middle French negliger, borrowed from Latin neglegere, neclegere "to disregard, do nothing about") + -able -able — more at neglect entry 1

First Known Use

1829, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

negligible

adjective

neg·​li·​gi·​ble ˈneg-li-jə-bəl 

: so small or unimportant as to deserve little or no attention

a negligible error

negligibly

-blē 

adverb