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Insubstantial vs Imaginary - What's the difference?

insubstantial | imaginary | Synonyms |

As adjectives the difference between insubstantial and imaginary

is that insubstantial is lacking substance; not real or strong while imaginary is existing only in the imagination.

As a noun imaginary is

imagination; fancy.

insubstantial

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Lacking substance; not real or strong.
    • The bridge was insubstantial and would not safely carry a car.

    Synonyms

    * unsubstantial (archaic)

    Antonyms

    * substantial

    imaginary

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • existing only in the imagination
  • * Addison
    • Wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer / Imaginary ills and fancied tortures?
  • (mathematics) of a number, having no real part; that part of a complex number which is a multiple of the square root of -1.

    • Derived terms

    * imaginarily * imaginariness

    Noun

    (imaginaries)
  • Imagination; fancy.
  • * 2002 , , The Great Nation , Penguin 2003, p. 324:
    • By then too Mozart's opera, from Da Ponte's libretto, had made Figaro a stock character in the European imaginary and set the whole Continent whistling Mozartian airs and chuckling at Figaresque humour.
  • (mathematics) An imaginary quantity.

    • External links

    * (Imaginary number)