significance

/sɪgˈnɪfɪkəns/

/sɪgˈnɪfɪkəns/

Other forms: significances

Significance means having the quality of being "significant" — meaningful, important. It also refers to the meaning of something. A certain date might have significance because it's your birthday or the anniversary of Princess Di's wedding.

Significance starts with the word sign for a reason. An item's significance is a sign of its importance. The significance of something can be implicit or explicit — meaning it can be clear or only known with a deeper understanding of the situation. Your perfect score on the Calculus exam might have added significance for people who know that you never even opened your textbook to study.

Definitions of significance

1. noun

   the quality of being significant
   “do not underestimate the significance of nuclear power”

   antonyms:

   insignificance

   the quality of having little or no significance

   types:

   historicalness

   significance owing to its history

   meaningfulness

   the quality of having great value or significance

   consequence, import, moment

   having important effects or influence

   matter

   (used with negation) having consequence

   purposefulness, sense of purpose

   the quality of having a definite purpose

   hell to pay

   dire consequences

   type of:

   importance

   the quality of being important and worthy of note
2. noun

   the message that is intended or expressed or signified
   “the significance of a red traffic light”

   synonyms: import, meaning, signification

   types:

   lexical meaning

   the meaning of a content word that depends on the nonlinguistic concepts it is used to express

   grammatical meaning

   the meaning of a word that depends on its role in a sentence; varies with inflectional form

   symbolisation, symbolization

   the use of symbols to convey meaning

   sense, signified

   the meaning of a word or expression; the way in which a word or expression or situation can be interpreted

   connotation, intension

   what you must know in order to determine the reference of an expression

   referent

   something referred to; the object of a reference

   burden, core, effect, essence, gist

   the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work

   intent, purport, spirit

   the intended meaning of a communication

   lesson, moral

   the significance of a story or event

   nicety, nuance, refinement, shade, subtlety

   a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude

   overtone

   (usually plural) an ulterior implicit meaning or quality

   point

   a brief version of the essential meaning of something

   acceptation, word meaning, word sense

   the accepted meaning of a word

   antecedent

   the referent of an anaphor; a phrase or clause that is referred to by an anaphoric pronoun

   denotatum

   an actual object referred to by a linguistic expression

   designatum

   something (whether existing or not) that is referred to by a linguistic expression

   bottom line

   the decisive point

   crux, crux of the matter

   the most important point

   rallying point

   a point or principle on which scattered or opposing groups can come together

   talking point

   an especially persuasive point helping to support an argument or discussion

   type of:

   content, message, subject matter, substance

   what a communication that is about something is about
3. noun

   a meaning that is not expressly stated but can be inferred
   “the significance of his remark became clear only later”

   synonyms: implication, import, subtext

   type of:

   meaning, substance

   the idea that is intended