immaterial

From Middle English inmateriall, from Medieval Latin immāteriālis.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɪməˈtɪɹi.əl/

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immaterial (comparative more immaterial, superlative most immaterial)

1. Having no matter or substance.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:insubstantial

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:substantial

   Because ghosts are immaterial, they can pass through walls.

   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], column 1:

     No? why art thou then exaſperate, thou idle, / immateriall skiene of Sleyd ſilke; thou greene Sarcenet / flap for a ſore eye, thou taſſell of a Prodigals purſe thou: […]

   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XXI, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

     You feel like a disembodied spirit, immaterial; and you seem to be able to touch beauty as though it were a palpable thing; and you feel an intimate communion with the breeze, and with the trees breaking into leaf, and with the iridescence of the river. You feel like God. Can you explain that to me?

2. (figurative) So insubstantial as to be irrelevant.

   Synonyms: neither here nor there, ungermane; see also Thesaurus:unconnected

   Antonyms: material, germane; see also Thesaurus:connected

   Objection, Your Honour! The defendant's criminal record is immaterial to this case.

   • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Emma: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I, II or III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC:

     She comforted her father better than she could comfort herself, by representing that though he certainly would make them nine, yet he always said so little, that the increase of noise would be very immaterial.

   • 1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], chapter 1, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], part 1st, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, →OCLC, page 11:

     He has also been good enough to recommend to me many tradesmen who are ready to supply these articles in any quantities; each of whom has been here already a dozen times, cap in hand, and vowing that it is quite immaterial when I pay—which is very kind of them; […]

   • 1875 January–December, Henry James, Jr., “Christina”, in Roderick Hudson, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., published 1876, →OCLC, page 178:

     He was perpetually at her side, trying, apparently, to preserve the thread of a disconnected talk, the fate of which was, to judge by her face, profoundly immaterial to the young lady.

• maritimale