substantial vs superficial

substantial

adj
  • Not imaginary; real; actual; true; veritable. 

  • Most important; essential. 

  • Having a substance; actually existing. 

  • Corporeal; material; firm. 

  • Possessed of goods or an estate; moderately wealthy. 

  • Satisfying; having sufficient substance to be nourishing or filling. 

  • Large in size, quantity, or value; ample; significant. 

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

noun
  • Anything having substance; an essential part. 

superficial

adj
  • Appearing to be true or real only until examined more closely. 

  • Not thorough, deep, or complete; concerned only with the obvious or apparent. 

  • Lacking depth of character or understanding; lacking substance or significance. 

  • Existing, occurring, or located on the surface. 

  • Situated or occurring on the skin or immediately beneath it. 

  • Two-dimensional; drawn on a flat surface. 

  • Denoting a quantity of a material expressed in terms of area covered rather than linear dimension or volume. 

noun
  • A surface detail. 

How often have the words substantial and superficial occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )