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

… was suffering terribly from the bad reviews and negligible sales of his first book …

—E. L. Doctorow

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 of negligible

• 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

Again, this produces negligible amounts of heat and pressure; the object is still just held up by gas pressure. —Big Think, 24 Apr. 2026

While that's slightly less than the current $2,222 average, the actual savings are negligible when compared to the soaring cost of gasoline. —Contessa Brewer,dawn Giel, CNBC, 23 Apr. 2026

On the slow-to-start end of the spectrum, Beaches, with an official opening tomorrow night, filled just 61% of seats at the Majestic for a tally of $473,027 and a negligible average ticket price of about $60. —Greg Evans, Deadline, 21 Apr. 2026

On Chinook, Norsepower’s monitors logged about 50 kW per rotor at peak spin – negligible relative to a main engine’s 15,000 kW. —Srishti Gupta, Interesting Engineering, 21 Apr. 2026

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