negligible

adjective neg·li·gi·ble \ ˈne-gli-jə-bəl \

Updated on: 16 May 2018

Definition of negligible

: 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

play \ˌne-gli-jə-ˈbi-lə-tē\ noun

—

negligibly

play \ˈne-gli-jə-blē\ adverb

See negligible defined for English-language learners

See negligible defined for kids

Examples of negligible in a Sentence

A negligible amount of damage was done to the vehicle.
The price difference was negligible.

Recent Examples of negligible from the Web

The difference between what was inside cans of Budweiser and Old Style might have been negligible, but the difference on the outside felt like everything.

— josh noel, chicagotribune.com, "How Goose Island sale to Anheuser-Busch changed craft beer; new book by Tribune beer writer Josh Noel," 9 May 2018
If cities and infrastructure could be designed around autonomous vehicles (AVs), containing only AVs, the difficulties facing AVs would be negligible.

— david roberts, Vox, "Here’s how self-driving cars could catch on," 8 May 2018
The schools make a few hundred thousand dollars on beer sales, and the overall effect is a few ticks above negligible.

— mac engel, star-telegram, "TCU selling fans beer while locking the door behind them | Fort Worth Star-Telegram," 30 Apr. 2018
Her role in this story is actually somewhat negligible at this point, legally speaking.

— aaron blake, Washington Post, "James Comey, Stormy Daniels and the flawed vessels commandeering the Trump resistance," 19 Apr. 2018
To date, the fuel efficiency gains have been negligible, primarily because HHO systems draw so much power from the alternator for electrolysis.

— eric tegler, Popular Mechanics, "Could the Future of Ultra Low Emissions Be...Diesel?," 30 Mar. 2018
Most of you don’t pay for a phone in one big chunk, opting instead to surrender monthly payments where the pricing discrepancy from one carrier or retailer to the next is more negligible, and the hit on your perusal budget is more manageable.

— edward c. baig, USA TODAY, "My Samsung Galaxy S9 is $80 cheaper than yours: How come?," 16 Mar. 2018
In the end, dissent was negligible, just as Xi Jinping likes it.

— charlie campbell / beijing, Time, "'More Opposition in Mao's Time.' Why China's Xi Jinping May Have to Rule for Life," 12 Mar. 2018
In regular desktop applications the overhead remained negligible, with games equally showing no meaningful difference in performance.

— peter bright, Ars Technica, "Here’s how, and why, the Spectre and Meltdown patches will hurt performance," 11 Jan. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'negligible.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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.

Origin and Etymology of negligible

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 ¹neglect

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1829

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year