1
as in spiritual
not composed of matter
it is only possible to study immaterial forces like gravity by observing their effects on the physical world
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in irrelevant
not having anything to do with the matter at hand
while undoubtedly upsetting, that story is immaterial to the question of why you are late
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of immaterial
Relative to Rhode Island’s annual budget of nearly $14 billion, this increase in tax collections represents an immaterial impact.
—
Nathan Goldman, Forbes.com, 1 Sep. 2025
The fact that it was conceived without thought and for decades was produced and consumed without thought is immaterial.
—Jeremy Repanich, Robb Report, 30 Aug. 2025
Whether Stevenson succeeds is immaterial to the fact a newly motivated and fit Stevenson is good news for the Patriots’ backfield.
—Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 31 July 2025
Many times on Gen V, characters talk about their parents with a sense of betrayal — this conversation over agency, respect, consent, and the material and immaterial impacts of V.
—Abbey White, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for immaterial
Nathan Goldman, Forbes.com, 1 Sep. 2025
The fact that it was conceived without thought and for decades was produced and consumed without thought is immaterial.
—Jeremy Repanich, Robb Report, 30 Aug. 2025
Whether Stevenson succeeds is immaterial to the fact a newly motivated and fit Stevenson is good news for the Patriots’ backfield.
—Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 31 July 2025
Many times on Gen V, characters talk about their parents with a sense of betrayal — this conversation over agency, respect, consent, and the material and immaterial impacts of V.
—Abbey White, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for immaterial
Recent Examples of Synonyms for immaterial
Adjective
-
The things that Finn has to get past and deal with in the course of the movie are relatively simple, and what Gwen is dealing with is much more complicated in terms of her mother’s death and inheriting her spiritual gift and feeling like an outsider who’s awkward, crazy and freakish.—
Brian Davids,
HollywoodReporter,
17 Oct. 2025
-
Accompanied by a nonchalant guitar performance, dancer and choreographer Dong Jilan, donning a brown velvet dress and having the same long, wavy hair as Sanmao, woke up from a miniature dune and roamed around the set in a highly spiritual and ceremonial fashion.—
Denni Hu,
Footwear News,
17 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Because really, what the adoption is and what other people do is somewhat irrelevant.—
Jackie Charniga,
USA Today,
13 Oct. 2025
-
But the winds of college football are demanding a change to a program that is quickly becoming irrelevant in the post-expansion Big Ten.—
Jordan Sigler,
MSNBC Newsweek,
12 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
In fact, magical life has the potential to be even more radically incorporeal than our own.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
26 June 2025
-
Indeed, in stark contrast to the incorporeal nature of a digital image, each of Winant’s photographs is, in a sense, a discrete body: a fallible material entity that boasts a hidden physical history and that will compositionally deteriorate over time.—
Jessica Simmons-Reid,
Artforum,
1 June 2025
Adjective
-
But in an Akan language, the notion that an object could exist as a bare substrate, stripped of properties—say, the idea of a stone, with its weight, texture, and color subtracted—is basically unintelligible; the metaphysical split between a thing and its properties isn’t naturally expressible.—
Lula Konner,
The New York Review of Books,
4 Oct. 2025
-
Best Gifts for Pisces Dreamy Pisces are creative and spiritual, so a journal, art set, or metaphysical kit with all of the essentials for a seance is a great gift idea.—
Jessie Quinn,
StyleCaster,
30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Put simply, superheated plasma was being tested as fuel, but the temperatures melted any sort of solid container, so the experiments used nonmaterial vessels formed from extremely powerful magnetic fields.—
Werner Herzog,
The New Yorker,
21 Aug. 2023
-
The first part of the book is committed to a ground-clearing exercise, describing the various concepts of the nonmaterial soul that feature in many different religious belief systems.—
Denis Alexander,
Washington Post,
17 Mar. 2023
Adjective
-
Due to their high metabolism and sensitive respiratory system, these small, yellow songbirds succumbed to the invisible, odorless gas much faster than humans.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
13 Oct. 2025
-
However, despite its brilliance, the system remains invisible in optical wavelengths, shrouded by thick layers of dust and gas.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
12 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
This a little closer to reality, despite being supernatural, and people fall in love in the real world all the time.—
Lexy Perez,
HollywoodReporter,
14 Oct. 2025
-
And yet, after a series of further downward spirals that will dig this scalawag even deeper into a hole and some supernatural mumbo-jumbo, his luck curiously starts to change….—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
14 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
In Ayurveda, Prana, the life force carried by the breath, is understood to nourish both the mind and body and can be viewed as a nonphysical substance, finer than oxygen.—
Trisha Swift,
Forbes.com,
28 July 2025
-
In accounting, intangible assets are nonphysical possessions including such things as brands and intellectual property, software, mineral rights ‒ and contracts.—
Alexander Coolidge,
The Enquirer,
2 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Immaterial.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/immaterial. Accessed 19 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share