Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having a bearing on or connection with the matter at hand.
  • adjective Meaningful or purposeful in current society or culture.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To the purpose; pertinent; applicable: as, the testimony is not relevant to the case.
  • In law, being in subject-matter germane to the controversy; conducive to the proof or disproof of a fact in issue or a pertinent hypothesis. See irrelevant.
  • In Scots law, sufficient legally: as, a relevant plea.
  • Synonyms and Apposite, appropriate, suitable, fit.

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

  • adjective rare Relieving; lending aid or support.
  • adjective Bearing upon, or properly applying to, the case in hand; pertinent; applicable.
  • adjective (Scots Law) Sufficient to support the cause.

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

  • adjective Directly related, connected, or pertinent to a topic.
  • adjective Not out of date; current.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having a bearing on or connection with the subject at issue

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin relevāns, relevant-, from Latin, present participle of relevāre, to relieve, raise up; see relieve.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French relevant ("assisting"), from Latin relevāns, present active participle of relevō ("lift up again, lighten, relieve"), from re- ("again") + levō ("lift").

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Examples

  • The only way he gets to remain "relevant" is for the "corporatists" he hates to remain in power, and he best acheives that goal by taking votes away from Democrats.

    Your Right Hand Thief 2008

  • Needless to say, Chris is the most commercially successful and contemporarily totally a word relevant of the artists nominated, but when the award has gone to the younguns in the past, it's been more traditionally soulful artists like Alicia Keys, India Arie and D'Angelo rather than an explicit pop crossover artist like Young Breezy.

    CNN.com 2012

  • Radditz does not say who the many are and the only use of the term relevant to the current situation that I could find was

    Feminist Peace Network 2009

  • Radditz does not say who the many are and the only use of the term relevant to the current situation that I could find was

    Feminist Peace Network 2009

  • Radditz does not say who the many are and the only use of the term relevant to the current situation that I could find was

    Feminist Peace Network 2009

  • Radditz does not say who the many are and the only use of the term relevant to the current situation that I could find was

    Feminist Peace Network 2009

  • Radditz does not say who the many are and the only use of the term relevant to the current situation that I could find was

    Feminist Peace Network 2009

  • Radditz does not say who the many are and the only use of the term relevant to the current situation that I could find was

    Feminist Peace Network 2009

  • Radditz does not say who the many are and the only use of the term relevant to the current situation that I could find was

    Feminist Peace Network 2009

  • Radditz does not say who the many are and the only use of the term relevant to the current situation that I could find was

    Feminist Peace Network 2009

Comments

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  • Holmes used this word a lot when he and Watson would talk about the case.

    July 4, 2012

  • They probably used the word the a lot too.

    July 4, 2012