To remove substance, materiality, or essential nature from something; to make something immaterial or less solid.
From 'de-' (reversal) plus 'substantialize' (to give substance to), formed from 'substance' plus '-alize' (to make or treat as). This creates a verb meaning 'to reverse materialization.'
Artists and philosophers use desubstantialize when describing how modern life increasingly dematerializes everything—we once owned physical books, now we own digital licenses; we owned homes, now we rent via apps; reality itself seems desubstantialized.
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