Insignificance is the quality of being so small, unimportant, or powerless that something barely matters at all. When you look up at the night sky and see billions of stars stretching across the universe, you might feel a sense of your own insignificance, realizing how tiny you are compared to the vastness of space. When a teacher says a single missed homework assignment is insignificant compared to your overall grade, she means it won't really affect your final score.

Something insignificant doesn't carry weight or consequence. A spelling error in your rough draft might be insignificant since you'll fix it later, but the same error on your final paper matters more.

People sometimes use insignificance to describe feelings of powerlessness or meaninglessness. A student might feel insignificant when lost in a huge crowd at a stadium, or when facing a problem that seems too big to solve.