significantadj.adv.n.
/sᵻɡˈnɪfᵻk(ə)nt/, U.S. /sᵻɡˈnɪfᵻk(ə)nt/ A. adj.
1. Highly expressive or suggestive; loaded with meaning.
a. Of a word, phrase, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > meaning > high significance, expressiveness > [adjective]
sententiousc1440
pregnant?a1475
significant1566
senseful1596
mattery1602
significative1639
expressive1690
meaning1726
voluminous1804
meaningful1852
eloquent1870
1566 J. Rastell Treat.: Beware of M. Iewel i. iv. sig. L He shall haue Termes significant enough: as Principalitie, Primacie, Chiefe Rule, and such others, as the Fathers vse, in speakinge of the See of Rome.
1579 E. K. in E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Ep. Ded. Other some.., if they happen to here an olde word, albeit very naturall and significant, crye out streightway [etc.].
1620 T. Shelton tr. M. de Cervantes Don Quixote To Rdr. A 2 b Endeuour to deliuer with significant, plaine, honest, and wel-ordred words thy Iouiall and cheerefull discourse.
a1626 F. Bacon Elements Common Lawes (1630) 6 Because it is most familiar to the Students and..most significant to expresse conceits of law.
1668 Publisher's Pref. to Rolle's Abridgment 2 His Arguments were fitted to prove and evince,..his words few, but significant and weighty.
1747 J. Edwards True Saints vi He expressed himself with that exact propriety and pertinency, in such significant, weighty, pungent expressions.
1769 E. Bancroft Ess. Nat. Hist. Guiana 328 They are mutually entertained..with a variety of fables, which are merry, significant, and replete.
1781 J. Ripley Sel. Orig. Lett. 41 Let the words English and Scotch be obliterated and lost in that more ancient and significant word Britons.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. vi. 117 He lived and died, in the significant phrase of one of his countrymen, a bad Christian, but a good Protestant.
1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) I. 262 [He] breaks off with a significant hint.
1925 Brit. Weekly 18 June 268/2 He lost his faith in the Bible..and (to use his own significant words) ‘I became a messageless man’.
2005 Independent 18 June 11/4 People often sneer at markers like this, but they are significant phrases with mind-bogglingly complex meanings.
b. Of a gesture, expression, action, or event.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > meaning > high significance, expressiveness > [adjective] > characterized by being
significant1581
speakingc1595
vocal1608
expressful1621
vocal speaking1649
expressive1718
signific1795
speechful1820
expressionable1892
1581 J. Bell tr. W. Haddon & J. Foxe Against Jerome Osorius iii. f. 437 The Lord himselfe at his maundy before he suffered..did long before certyfy his disciples thereof by some significant token.
1591 R. Southwell Marie Magdalens Funeral Teares f. 60 Shee was forced..to supplye the want of words, with more significant actions.
1650 J. Trapp Clavis to Bible (Gen. xli. 11) 317 That is, no vain dreame, but significant, and deserving an interpreter.
1709 Ld. Shaftesbury Moralists iii. ii. 204 I saw so significant a Smile on Theocles's Face, that it stop'd me.
1778 F. Burney Evelina III. xi. 114 She looked at me with a significant archness that made me colour.
1833 C. Lamb Ellistoniana in Last Ess. Elia 41 Gathering up his features into one significant mass of wonder, pity, and expostulatory indignation.
1858 J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. (ed. 2) III. 87 The upper house had been treated in disputes which had arisen with significant disrespect.
1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People iv. §5. 204 A significant act followed these emphatic words.
1910 N. Munro in Glasgow News 18 Apr. 2/1 Erchie came home two hours late for his supper. ‘Whit in a' the world's come ower ye?’ said his wife, with a significant glance at the clock.
2003 L. Faderman Naked in Promised Land x. 174 I yearned to know what it would feel like to pass a strange woman on the boulevard, exchange a significant glance that would be invisible to the droves around us, and follow her.
2.
a. That has or conveys a particular meaning; that signifies or indicates something.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > meaning > [adjective]
significative?a1400
signifyingc1443
significate?a1475
articulate1531
significant1573
significatory1579
semiotic1797
1573 T. Twyne tr. H. Llwyd Breuiary of Britayne f. 8 Almost, all names of men, and places: are of them selues significant.
1597 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie v. lxv. 158 A speciall dislike they haue to heare that Ceremonies now in vse should be thought significant.
1608 E. Topsell Hist. Serpents 48 Their voyce was not a significant voyce, but a kinde of scrietching.
1693 J. Edwards Disc. conc. Old & New-Test. I. iii. 103 Adam gave..proper and significant Names, to all Creatures.
1751 J. Harris Hermes i. iii. 27 If every thing not absolute, is of course relative; then will all Words be significant either absolutely or relatively.
1843 J. S. Mill Syst. Logic I. i. vii. §1 A general, which is as much as to say a significant name.
1871 C. Davies Metric Syst. iii. 157 The names of the months were to be significant.
1936 A. J. Ayer Lang., Truth & Logic iii. 71 Two symbols are said to be of the same type when it is always possible to substitute one for the other without changing a significant sentence into a piece of nonsense.
1996 W. Davis Replications iii. 70 Possibly these markings were all jointly significant.
b. Mathematics. Of a digit: giving meaningful information about the precision of the number in which it is contained, rather than simply filling vacant places at the beginning or end. Esp. in significant figure, significant digit.The more precisely a number is known, the more significant figures it has.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical notation or symbol > [noun] > figure
rimeeOE
figure?c1225
numberc1300
digit?a1400
digitalc1450
cipher1530
term1552
terminus?a1560
significant figure1614
small figuresa1652
numeral1654
monasa1690
binary digit1796
nomial1828
supplement1868
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical notation or symbol > [noun] > notation of arithmetical significance
significant figure1614
significant digit1857
placeholder1928
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > [adjective] > with respect to size
smallc1400
long1712
numerical1812
fifty1819
normed1935
significant1962
1614 W. Bedwell De Numeris Geometricis iii. 41 If the first figure (the last, some peraduenture would call it) of the number giuen be a significant figure, then it is manifest, that ouer and aboue certaine akers, &c. there are some odde perches.
1706 W. Jones Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos 22 Multiply the Significant Figures by the former Rules, and annex to the Product as many Cyphers.
1798 C. Hutton Course Math. I. 4 The first nine are called Significant Figures, as distinguished from the cipher, which is quite insignificant of itself.
1857 T. Gibson Kavanagh's Arithm. (ed. 5) 220 All numbers having the same significant digits, have the decimal parts of their logs alike.
1938 A. E. Waugh Elements Statist. Method ii. 8 If we are told that the distance is 1000·00 miles, there are six significant figures, since it was not necessary to put in the zeros to locate the decimal point.
1962 C. Bell et al. Fund. Arith. for Teachers xv. 231 If a measurement is expressed as a natural number, it is not always possible to determine the number of significant digits.
2006 W. R. Tschinkel Fire Ants iv. 413 We can determine queen weight to four significant figures on our high-priced millibalance.
3. Expressive or indicative of something.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > meaning > meaning of linguistic unit > drift, tenor, purport > [adjective]
intential?c1470
significant1600
material1602
1600 W. Vaughan Nat. & Artific. Direct. Health v. iii. 54 Iupiter.., a planet significant of equitie, temperance, and religion.
1665 T. Tanner Euphuia 7 The eyes..emit those casts and glances, that are significant of gentle passions.
1707 J. Norris Pract. Treat. Humility iv. 148 The Motions and Gestures of the Body..are significant of the Sentiments of the Mind.
1793 T. Holcroft tr. J. C. Lavater Ess. Physiognomy (abridged ed.) viii. 48 Blue eyes are generally more significant of weakness..than brown or black.
1827 G. Higgins Celtic Druids Pref. p. i Thus words are sounds significant of ideas.
1841 A. Helps Judgm. Other Men in Ess. (1842) 37 The most important of his actions may be anything but the most significant of the man.
1867 S. Smiles Huguenots Eng. & Ireland vii. 166 One of the king's first acts..was significant of his future policy with regard to the Huguenots.
1921 Amer. Woman Jan. 3/4 This latter remark mother meant to be significant of her disapproval.
1983 A. Kazin in S. Crane Red Badge of Courage Introd. p. xi It is significant of the widespread interest in the Civil War that Crane was able first to publish his novel in a Philadelphia newspaper.
2002 P. Blom To have & to Hold (2003) 60 It is the hands that make this picture..as we know them from innumerable portraits, pointing to whatever is deemed significant of the sitter: an open book perhaps for a scholar, a map for a geographer, [etc.].
4.
a. Sufficiently great or important to be worthy of attention; noteworthy; consequential, influential.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [adjective] > worthy of notice
specialc1405
eminentc1420
markablec1449
noteworthy1552
regardable1572
respectable1584
of —— observation1587
considerable1589
of (great, little, etc.) mark1590
signal1591
remarkable1593
conspicuous1604
noble1604
observative1608
observable1609
significant1642
noteful1644
signalized1652
tall1655
curious1682
notice-worthy1713
unco1724
noticeable1793
handsome1813
epoch-forming1816
measurable1839
epochal1857
epoch-making1863
era-making1894
epoch-marking1895
high profile1950
landmark1959
1642 E. Dering Coll. Speeches on Relig. ix. 27 You have here a Bill, but such a one as is likely to bee short-liv'd..unlesse you please to add thereunto some very important, very significant proviso's.
a1761 W. Law Comfort Weary Pilgrim (1809) 19 Whoever he is..that seems..to have made himself significant in any kind of religious distinction.
1788 T. Denman Introd. Pract. Midwifery II. xi. 126 Forceps..when used, should be covered with smooth and thin leather, which without any significant increase of bulk, renders their introduction more easy.
1819 J. Hogg Jacobite Relics 231 George Bailey of Jerviswood was..by far the most significant man of all his party, to whom he was a kind of dictator.
1862 F. D. Maurice Mod. Philos. vi. §6. 209 A little man may be a very significant man.
1873 Harper's New Monthly Mag. Apr. 773/1 He has no significant standing in literary history.
1919 Mus. Fine Arts Bull. Feb. 7/1 He was thought to be devoid of all originality, significant only as a prolific copyist and as a reworker of other men's plates.
1941 Open Road for Boys Oct. 34/3 Historically significant stamps that should be in the albums of every wide-awake collector.
2001 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 20 Dec. c5/1 When significant news breaks, the morning shows typically drop the lighter segments to pursue those stories.
b. In weakened sense: noticeable, substantial, considerable, large.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > [adjective] > considerable in amount or degree
goodeOE
fairOE
goodlyc1275
largea1375
no littlea1413
substantial1413
unleast?1440
prettya1475
reasonablea1500
substantious1545
substantive1575
sensible1581
pretty and ——1596
goody1597
greatish1611
considerable1651
sonsy1721
respectable1736
smart1750
quite a little ——1763
gey1796
smartish1799
canny1805
serious1810
right smart1825
dunnamuch1831
snug1833
tidy1839
bonnyish1855
largish1872
a nice little ——1891
significant1898
healthy1901
beaucoup1917
1898 Tribune Almanac 333/1 The significant growth of the Japanese population in Hawaii led to unpleasant complications between the two countries early in 1897.
1931 McCall's Mag. Sept. 74 A significant self-fabric cuff and a very notable shoulder line.
1944 Amer. Sociol. Rev. 9 159 The significant prejudice against nouveaux arrivés.
1967 Times Rev. Industry June 71/2 Significant inroads are being made into this market by the use of electro-plated plastics.
1985 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 11 Mar. Studies in the United States have shown significant declines in union membership in companies that assigned a high priority to union avoidance.
2005 Queensland Country Life 8 Sept. 19/1 Farmers already fork out a significant amount of money to manage water resources.
5. Statistics. Of an observed numerical result: having a low probability of occurrence if the null hypothesis is true; unlikely to have occurred by chance alone. More fully statistically significant.A result is said to be significant at a specified level of probability (typically five per cent) if it will be obtained or exceeded with not more than that probability when the null hypothesis is true.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > probability or statistics > [adjective] > significant
significant1885
1885 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. (Jubilee Vol.) 187 In order to determine whether the observed difference between the mean stature of 2,315 criminals and the mean stature of 8,585 British adult males belonging to the general population is significant [etc.].
1907 Biometrika 5 318 Relative local differences falling beyond + 2 and − 2 may be regarded as probably significant since the number of asylums is small (22).
1925 R. A. Fisher Statist. Methods iii. 47 Deviations exceeding twice the standard deviation are thus formally regarded as significant.
1931 L. H. C. Tippett Methods Statistics iii. 48 It is conventional to regard all deviations greater than those with probabilities of 0·05 as real, or statistically significant.
1971 Nature 26 Nov. 231/2 If..fifteen experiments are performed to detect a relationship which is not present, the probability that one or more experiments will give a result significant at the 0·05 level is 0·54.
2008 B. Goldacre Bad Sci. xiii. 248 So we have a risk increase of 35.7 per cent, which seems at face value to be statistically significant; but it is an isolated figure.
B. adv.
Significantly; with meaning. In later use: with a meaningful expression. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > meaning > high significance, expressiveness > [adverb]
significatively?a1475
significantly1577
expressively?1623
speakingly1640
meaninglya1750
significant1861
pregnantly1878
meaningfully1890
1580 J. Bell tr. J. Foxe Pope Confuted ii. f. 77v What can bee spoken more manifestly than these wordes? what can be set downe more significant than the thinges themselues?
1615 J. Taylor Cast over Water sig. C When I a learned word in Verse doe plant, I will be sure to write significant.
1861 J. C. H. Fane & Ld. Lytton Tannhäuser 14 The sullen barons on each other stared Significant.
1908 H. H. Richardson Maurice Guest iii. 33 At this, several of the young men laughed and looked significant.
C. n.
A thing which expresses or conveys meaning; a sign, a symbol, an indication.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > indication > [noun] > an indication or sign
tokeningc888
fingereOE
senyeOE
markOE
showing?c1225
blossomc1230
signa1325
signifyingc1384
evidencea1393
notea1398
forbysena1400
kenninga1400
knowinga1400
showerc1400
unningc1400
signala1413
signification?a1425
demonstrancec1425
cenyc1440
likelinessc1450
ensign1474
signifure?a1475
outshowinga1500
significativea1500
witter1513
precedent1518
intimation1531
signifier1532
meith1533
monument1536
indicion?1541
likelihood1541
significator1554
manifest1561
show1561
evidency1570
token-teller1574
betokener1587
calendar1590
instance1590
testificate1590
significant1598
crisis1606
index1607
impression1613
denotementa1616
story1620
remark1624
indicium1625
denotation1633
indice1636
signum1643
indiction1653
trace1656
demonstrator1657
indication1660
notationa1661
significatory1660
indicator1666
betrayer1678
demonstration1684
smell1691
wittering1781
notaa1790
blazonry1850
sign vehicle1909
marker1919
rumble1927
1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iii. i. 127 Beare this significant to the countrey Maide Iaquenetta. View more context for this quotation
1600 W. Vaughan Nat. & Artific. Direct. Health iii. i. 32 Dreames are either tokens of things past, or significants of things to come.
1628 O. Felltham Resolves: 2nd Cent. xx. sig. L8v I see not, but that Diuinity, put into apt significants, might rauish as well as Poetry.
1656 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. II. viii. 32 The second question concerning words, is of their power..of significants.
1825 S. T. Coleridge Aids Refl. 331 The contradictory admission, that Regeneration is the significatum, of which Baptism is the significant.
1830 W. Wordsworth Egyptian Maid 251 In my glass significants there are Of things that may to gladness turn this weeping.
1862 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Apr. 393/2 He is fond of the word Duty;..it is a word that offends nobody, and has in this an advantage over significants of merit more high sounding—such as Honour, Virtue, Morality, Religion.
1902 B. Stoker Myst. of Sea ix. 92 In the dotted letters it was possible that more than one element existed, for the disposition of significants appeared to be of endless variety.
2001 P. Picard in S. Martinot Maps & Mirrors iii. 177 Signs, as what stand for something else, are no more mere significants pointing to signifieds.
Compounds
significant form n. (also with capital initials) the formal quality in a work of art which provokes an aesthetic response in the viewer, and hence distinguishes the object as art.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > the arts in general > [noun] > work of art > qualities generally > hypothetical
significant form1914
1914 C. Bell Art ii. i. 8 What quality is shared by all objects that provoke our aesthetic emotions?.. In each, lines and colours combined in a particular way, certain forms and relations of forms, stir our aesthetic emotions. These relations and combinations..I call ‘Significant Form’; and ‘Significant Form’ is the one quality common to all works of visual art.
1965 Brit. Jrnl. Aesthetics 5 113 Significant form cannot be attributed primarily to works of art on the ground that aesthetic emotion obtained from works of art is more intense than that felt in the contemplation of natural objects and pure forms.
2001 C. Freeland But is it Art? i. 15 ‘Significant Form’ is a particular combination of lines and colours that stir our aesthetic emotions.
significant other n. (a) Social Psychology any person with great influence on the behaviour, self-opinion, etc., of another (esp. of a child); (b) (in later use) a person with whom someone has an established romantic or sexual relationship; a partner.
ΚΠ
1940 H. S. Sullivan in Psychiatry 3 22/1 The point is that the self is approved by significant others, that any tendencies of the personality that are not so approved..are dissociated from personal awareness.
1977 Toronto Star 21 May b5 Some skirt the problem by using such words as ‘fiancee’, ‘co-hab’, ‘inamorata’, ‘significant other’.
1987 A. Maupin Significant Others xiv. 115 ‘We aren't in love now’, he said. She nodded. ‘But she's still your significant other.’
1998 Community Care 30 Apr. 33/1 Psychosocial factors, highlighted by the researcher and the families—such as the overall well-being of the child in the context of their family and extended family, significant others, school and so on—were ignored.
2009 Metro 10 Feb. (London ed.) 29/5 Romance beckons and about time too. Make time for your significant other over and above absolutely everything else today.
Derivatives
sigˈnificantness n. [compare earlier signifiance n., significance n., significancy n.] the fact or quality of being significant; significance.
ΚΠ
1727 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II Significantness, significancy.
1993 T. Williams To Green Angel Tower iii. 45 You will have noticed its significantness for our efforts.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.adv.n.1566