insignificance
Meaningthe state or quality of being not marking anything
Common meaning: the quality or state of being insignificant
- inin, into; (before adjectives) not
- signa mark or signalLewis & Short, Latin Dictionary (1879), p. 1696 · scan
- ificlink: making
- ancenoun ending: doing, or the condition that results
‘in, into’ + ‘a mark or signal’ → insignificance
Journey through time
- Latinsignum, -ī‘a mark or signal’
- Frenchsignifier
- Englishinsignificant‘too small or unimportant to matter’
- Englishformed in English from insignificantinsignificance‘the quality or state of being insignificant’ · today
Sources & notes
Inferred source: no dictionary we use has an entry for this exact word. Its history is worked out from closely related, listed words in the same family, and we are trusting that link, so bear that in mind. Inferred meaning: the state or quality of being not marking anything. It can be inferred from any of: insignificant.
Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
- No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
- US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
- No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.
Origin: Formed in English from insignificant + -ance (inferred: this exact word is not listed in our dictionaries).
Roots
- signum, -ī Latin “a mark or signal”
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