insignificancy

[ in-sig-nif-i-kuhn-see ]

noun

, plural in·sig·nif·i·can·cies

1. insignificance.
2. an insignificant person or thing.

Word History and Origins

Origin of insignificancy¹

First recorded in 1645–55; insignific(ant) + -ancy

Example Sentences

There is but a step from conscious insignificancy to the loftiest pretension.

From Project Gutenberg

A general fit of piety bespoke the general dread; and they who had before been chiefly intent upon establishing their importance with their fellow-travellers, seemed now feelingly convinced of their own dependence and insignificancy.

From Project Gutenberg

The success of her Letters is stated by herself to have been the source of much good to her: she who, only ten years before, declared that 'this world had nothing for her but a few friends,' who owns that 'a certain weariness of life, and a sense of insignificance and insipidity,' did then 'deject' her, now feels that the success of her writings appeased 'that uneasy sense of helplessness and insignificancy which often depressed and afflicted her.'

From Project Gutenberg

Greece shared in the general decay: her commerce and manufactures, being confined to supplying the consumption of a diminished and impoverished population, sunk into insignificancy.

From Project Gutenberg

True wisdom is the knowledge of ourselves, which terminates in a conviction of our absolute insignificancy with respect to God, and our relative inferiority in many instances to the accomplishments of our own species: and power is encompassed with such a multiplicity of dangerous temptations as to be almost incompatible with virtue.

From Project Gutenberg