intangibility

[ in-tan-juh-bil-i-tee ]

noun
  1. the quality of not being tangible; inability to be perceived by the sense of touch: One debt cannot be measured, because of its intangibility—my debt to you all for your support of the project.

  2. the quality of being unclear to the mind; vague or indefinite quality: Some writers stress the intangibility of the term “social movement” and seem almost happy to abandon any attempt to define it.

  1. the quality of an asset that is not physical or financial, and often not measurable or transferable, but that contributes to the value of a business, such as reputation, patents, etc.: The intangibility of knowledge assets makes them difficult to license out to independent firms without loss of quality control.

Origin of intangibility

1
First recorded in 1840–50; intang(ible) + -ibility
  • Rarely in·tan·gi·ble·ness [in-tan-juh-buhl-nis] /ɪnˈtæn dʒə bəl nɪs/ .

Words Nearby intangibility

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use intangibility in a sentence

  • It was the very subtlety and intangibility of "they" that made him uneasy, made him less sure of himself and his own ability.

    Still Jim | Honor Willsie Morrow
  • The wonderment as to what lay beyond, the sense that it was a limit to known things, its savage intangibility, its sheer silence!

    First and Last | H. Belloc
  • Whenever that look appeared in her wild, bright, deeply black eyes, it invested them with a strange remoteness and intangibility.

    An English Grammar | W. M. Baskervill and J. W. Sewell
  • He could not tell what was behind that smile of hers—passionate aching or only some ideal, some chaste and glacial intangibility.

    The Island Pharisees | John Galsworthy
  • Strange net-work of classes in a democratic country, of distinctions the more galling for their intangibility.

    The Ordeal of Elizabeth | Elizabeth Von Arnim