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substantial

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Large in size, quantity.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

suhbstanchuhl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

səbsˈtæntʃəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Having substance or capable of being treated as fact; not imaginary

  2. Having a substance; actually existing.

  3. Having good substance; strong; stout; solid; firm.

  4. Not imaginary; real; actual; true; veritable.

  5. Most important; essential.

  6. Possessed of goods or an estate; moderately wealthy.

noun

  1. Anything having substance; an essential part.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Having substance or capable of being treated as fact; not imaginary

Used this way, substantial is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • material , a specialist term, precise but narrower

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Satisfying / anything

substantial partsubstantial proportion

Large

substantial amount

Other combinations

substantial numbersubstantial evidencesubstantial portionsubstantial reductionsubstantial progress

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • substantivenounDerived noun

    Any word or group of words functioning as a noun.

  • substantiallyadverbDerived adverb

    To a great extent or degree.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: anything having substance

materialsolidTechnical

Antonyms

Sense: having substance or capable of being treated as fact

unrealinsubstantialunsubstantial

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.