Definitions

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

  • noun The state or quality of being significant: synonym: importance.
  • noun A meaning that is expressed or implied.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun That which, is signified; purport; covert sense; real or implied meaning; that which may be inferred in regard to any state of things from any circumstance: as, the significance of a metaphor, of a chance remark, of a look, of behavior.
  • noun Importance; move strictly, importance as significative of something interesting, but also, frequently, importance as affecting considerable interests: as, the great significance of many small things.
  • noun The character of being significant; force of meaning; distinct signification; expressiveness.

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

  • noun The quality or state of being significant.
  • noun That which is signified; meaning; import.
  • noun Importance; moment; weight; consequence.

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

  • noun The extent to which something matters; importance
  • noun Meaning.

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

  • noun the message that is intended or expressed or signified
  • noun the quality of being significant
  • noun a meaning that is not expressly stated but can be inferred

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin significantia.

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