Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Carriage; port; demeanor; air; mien.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete See port, carriage, demeanor.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete The manner in which one carries oneself; personal carriage; bearing; deportment; mien.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle French portance ("a carrying, support"), from porter ("to carry"), from Latin portare ("carry, bear, convey").

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Examples

  • But your im - portance to me'to all of us-is greater than you think.

    Ilse Witch Brooks, Terry 2000

  • Susan set no im-portance on that; it was a tone such a thing as this had probably adopted her whole life, and came as automatically as breath.

    Wizard and Glass King, Stephen 1997

  • During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Child loomed larger as an exemplar; and children's rights took on greater im - portance, not only in the eyes of educators but also in those of moralists.

    PRIMITIVISM GEORGE BOAS 1968

  • Great im - portance must be attached also to the fact that, in a number of countries, a wide range of population had come to be concerned with politics, and therefore with issues of a historical nature.

    HISTORIOGRAPHY HERBERT BUTTERFIELD 1968

  • He also minimized the im - portance of the brain and of central processes in learn - ing.

    BEHAVIORISM R. S. PETERS 1968

  • His function in the history of linguistics is twofold: he continues the tradition of language classification into families (though he enter - tains the notion of a possible common descent for all); an important aspect of this classification is its chrono - logical-historical interpretation (he dwells on the im - portance of such studies as a tool for the writing of history).

    LINGUISTICS HENRY M. HOENIGSWALD 1968

  • But John Stuart Mill emphasized the im - portance of distinguishing the quality of pleasures and pains in evaluating the good and evil in various pro - posed actions or experiences: “Better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”

    PROBLEM OF EVIL RADOSLAV A. TSANOFF 1968

  • But in the trend to materialism which thus drew sustenance from a broad spectrum of sources, the im - portance of Spinoza as a catalyzing agent should not be neglected.

    Dictionary of the History of Ideas ARAM VARTANIAN 1968

  • Of the complex multitude of Hindu gods two are of outstanding im - portance and distinction, namely, Vishnu and Řiva.

    Dictionary of the History of Ideas S. G. F. BRANDO 1968

  • Though he repressed freedom of conscience and personal liberty, and, like Martin Luther, gave the individual no right to rebel, he did allow disobedience to rulers who commanded what was contrary to the word of God, and he gave currency to a theory of resistance to monarchy which was to be of great im - portance in the subsequent period.

    CHRISTIANITY IN HISTORY HERBERT BUTTERFIELD 1968

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  • So mien is on the other side from starboard?

    October 9, 2022