substantial

Pluralsubstantials

1. 1
   adjective

   Large in size, quantity, or value; ample enough to be significant.

   The company reported substantial losses in the third quarter.

   Restoring the old theater will require a substantial investment of time and money.

   Similarconsiderable, significant, large, sizable, major

   Oppositesmall, negligible, insignificant, minor

   Note

   The sense that measures sits naturally before amount, number, sum and share: a substantial amount of money, a substantial number of people. With number, the verb agrees with the people rather than with the word number (a substantial number of people went). It means more than enough to matter, so it is weaker than huge and stronger than some.

2. 2
   adjective

   Solidly made of good material; strong, stout, and firm.

   The substantial oak table survived three generations of family dinners.

   They replaced the flimsy wire gate with a substantial iron one.

   Similarsturdy, solid, strong, stout, robust

   Oppositeflimsy, fragile, insubstantial

   Note

   A builder's and draper's word: substantial cloth, a substantial fence or wall. What it praises is construction and material, not size. A small gate can be substantial if it is solidly made. That separates it from the "large in amount" meaning, though in practice the two often travel together, since sturdy things are often heavy ones.

3. 3
   adjective

   Satisfying; containing enough substance to be nourishing or filling.

   The diner serves substantial portions that easily feed two people.

   A thick stew felt substantial enough to carry her through the afternoon shift.

   Similarhearty, filling, satisfying, generous

   Oppositelight, meager

   Note

   Food is the usual subject, and the favorite construction follows its noun: something substantial, something more substantial, set against a mere snack or a few crackers. R.E.M.'s "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite," on Automatic for the People (1992), stretches it by stuttering its first syllable several times over. The singer wants beans or black-eyed peas instead of instant soup, which captures the word's sense of food that actually fills you.

4. 4
   adjective

   Most important; essential to the matter in question.

   The substantial question before the court was whether the contract ever existed.

   Reporters chased gossip and ignored the substantial issues of the campaign.

   Similaressential, fundamental, central, main

   Oppositeperipheral, minor, trivial

5. 5
   adjective

   Real rather than imaginary; actually existing and truly what it appears to be.

   What seemed a mere legend rested on substantial events in the town's past.

   Their hopes of rescue proved substantial when the ship appeared on the horizon.

   Similarreal, actual, genuine

   Oppositeimaginary, illusory

   Note

   Here the contrast is with the imaginary or the merely apparent. Cardinal John Henry Newman, in The Rise and Progress of Universities, sets substantial good against incidental imperfection: good that is genuine and lasting, not a passing impression. Read such phrases carefully, because substantial good can also suggest a large amount of good. When the point is real versus illusory, this is the sense at work.

6. 6
   adjective

   Corporeal and material; having physical substance and firmness.

   She woke from the dream into the substantial world of brick and iron.

   The figure in the hallway proved substantial when he collided with it.

   Similarmaterial, physical, corporeal, solid

   Oppositeinsubstantial, immaterial, ethereal

7. 7
   adjective

   Having a substance; existing in actual fact.

   For the old mystic, the visible world was a passing shadow, and only the life of the spirit was substantial.

   Philosophers have long asked whether numbers are substantial or exist only in the mind.

   Similarreal, actual

   Oppositeinsubstantial, illusory

   Note

   The sense closest to the word's roots: Middle English substancial came through Old French substanciel from Latin substantiālis, the adjective of "substance." Here nothing is big or sturdy. The word simply says a thing has being of its own, as in substantial life. It is the philosopher's use, and it shades into the "real, not imaginary" meaning, which asks less about being and more about truth.

8. 8
   adjective

   Possessing considerable goods or property; moderately wealthy and well established.

   He married into a substantial merchant family from Boston.

   The town's substantial citizens funded the new library.

   Similarprosperous, wealthy, affluent

   Oppositepoor

   Note

   Applied to people and households rather than things: a substantial freeholder is a person of property, settled and secure. The wealth it describes is moderate and solid rather than lavish. The word suits historical and literary portraits of prosperous farmers, merchants and householders, where it marks standing in a community as much as money in the bank.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   Anything that has real substance, or an essential part of something.

   Trust is the one substantial on which every partnership rests.

   For the weary traveler, bread and shelter were the true substantials of life.

   Similaressential, fundamental, basic

   Note

   The adjective made into a noun, with a regular plural, substantials. It does the work that essentials does, as in the substantials of a case or the substantials of life. It borrows its weight from the "most important" meaning: a substantial is whatever a matter cannot do without.

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