Substantial
//səbˈstænʃəl// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Anything having substance; an essential part.
Adjective
- 1 Having a substance; actually existing.
"substantial life"
- 2 Not imaginary; real; actual; true; veritable.
"1850s, Cardinal John Henry Newman, The Rise and Progress of Universities to do some substantial good, is the compensation for much incidental imperfection"
- 3 Corporeal; material; firm.
- 4 Having good substance; strong; stout; solid; firm.
"substantial cloth"
- 5 Possessed of goods or an estate; moderately wealthy.
"a substantial freeholder"
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- 6 Large in size, quantity, or value; ample; significant.
"He inherited a substantial amount of money from his uncle."
- 7 Most important; essential.
- 8 Satisfying; having sufficient substance to be nourishing or filling.
"I don't just want a snack; I need something substantial."
Adjective
- 1 of considerable importance, size, or worth wordnet
- 2 having substance or capable of being treated as fact; not imaginary wordnet
- 3 of or relating to the real nature or essential elements of something wordnet
- 4 having an abundant supply of money or possessions of value wordnet
- 5 of good quality and condition; solidly built wordnet
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- 6 providing abundant nourishment wordnet
Example
More examples"Thanks to the opportunity, we were able to avoid substantial effort."
Etymology
From Middle English substancial, substantiall, from Old French substanciel, substantiel and its etymon Latin substantiālis.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.