Roget's Thesaurus: Entry 4 (Unsubstantiality)

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#4. Unsubstantiality. -- N. unsubstantiality[obs], insubstantiality; nothingness, nihility[obs]; no degree, no part, no quantity, no thing.

nothing, naught, nil, nullity, zero, cipher, no one, nobody; never a one, ne'er a one[contr]; no such thing, none in the world; nothing whatever, nothing at all, nothing on earth; not a particle &c. (smallness) 32; all talk, moonshine, stuff and nonsense; matter of no importance, matter of no consequence. thing of naught, man of straw, John Doe and Richard Roe, faggot voter; nominis umbra[Lat], nonentity; flash in the pan, vox et praeterea nihil[Lat].

shadow; phantom &c.(fallacy of vision) 443; dream &c. (imagination) 515; ignis fatuus &c. (luminary) 423[Lat]; " such stuff as dreams are made of " [Tempest]; air, thin air, vapor; bubble &c. 353; " baseless fabric of a vision " [Tempest]; mockery.

hollowness, blank; void &c. (absence) 187.

inanity, fool's paradise.

V. vanish, evaporate, fade, dissolve, melt away; disappear &c. 449.

Adj. unsubstantial; baseless, groundless; ungrounded; without foundation, having no foundation.

visionary &c. (imaginary) 515; immaterial &c. 137; spectral &c. 980; dreamy; shadowy; ethereal, airy; cloud built, cloud formed; gossamery, illusory, insubstantial, unreal.

vacant, vacuous; empty &c. 187; eviscerated; blank, hollow; nominal; null; inane.

Phr. there's nothing in it; " an ocean of dreams without a sound" [Shelley].