Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having a bearing on or connection with the matter at hand.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. rare Relieving; lending aid or support.
- adj. Bearing upon, or properly applying to, the case in hand; pertinent; applicable.
- adj. (Scots Law) Sufficient to support the cause.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having a bearing on or connection with the subject at issue
Etymologies
- From Old French relevant ("assisting"), from Latin relevāns, present active participle of relevō ("lift up again, lighten, relieve"), from re- ("again") + levō ("lift"). (Wiktionary)
- Medieval Latin relevāns, relevant-, from Latin, present participle of relevāre, to relieve, raise up; see relieve. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
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.”
“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.”
“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”
“In that first season starting with 'Rose' the Doctor was the mysterious figure he'd always been hooking new viewers in with questions which suddenly made the title relevant again as it became a question; but then with the addition of news of the destruction of his home planet (not named properly for another two years) fans were drawn in with questions about what happened which still haven't been completely answered.”
“Sooner or later, the word "relevant" is gonna get tossed around and it's kind of hard to claim relevance holding an upright bass and rocking a 30-year-old song selection.”
“Other times, it just seems like you've heard it a million times, especially any sentence with the word "relevant" in it: "I think the vision for Judaism 2030 is: How do we, as synagogues and small communities around the country, manage to remain relevant to the lives of our constituents while they live in a global world?”
“Zigtag is redefining the term relevant on the Internet!”
“They have a quality of what I call relevant irrelevance.”
Fully Human, Fully Divine: James Fowler and Evelyn Underhill
“And former England international Hopley, chief executive of the Rugby Players' Association, intends pursuing the matter with what he describes as "relevant national and international bodies".”
“This personalized dynamic has faded with democratization, but the memory and vestiges of it remain relevant in Mexican politics today.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘relevant’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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JURI - patent law
admissible, absolute grounds ..., abstract, acquisition of th..., action for revoca..., admissibility of ..., acceptable, allowable, appeal to a court, appellant, applicant, application and 338 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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bbc uk china vocab.
conservationists, estimate, threats, infertility, eating away at, endangered, furry, panel, in trouble, gongs, triumphed, caps and 1007 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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museum words
words from work
provenance, accession, deaccession, conservation, preparator, registrar, curator, jargon, Oz clip, bell plate, stretcher, ornate and 115 more...
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JURI - courtroom speak
Legal glossary with special focus on courtroom vocabulary
accused, acquittal, ADA, adjournment, adjudication, affidavit, affirmed, aggravated range, aggravating factors, allegation, alleged, answer and 794 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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Here and Now
Words related to the mental state of "being in the present in the moment".
improvisation, nolens volens, extempore, autoschediastic, in medias res, willy-nilly, egersis, immanence, nunc pro tunc, spontaneity, observant, concentration and 55 more...
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ENVI - non-commercial movement of pet...
You can manipulate this list here: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/wordlists/184552
rabies, categorisation, transponder, point of entry, derogation, veterinarian, safety feature, identification, resubmit, vaccinate, pet, immunise and 71 more...
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maf
sectarian, sectarian =narrow..., oppression, oppress, sort out, worldwide, legit, constrain, constrained, I feel constrained, constraint, divisive and 56 more...
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writing first chapter
revolve, vital, necessity, depict, archery, indegenous, native, lacrosse, similarly, recess, composition, indicator and 91 more...
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Latin Spelling Bee List
need to know these words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
inane, ambivalent, incriminate, interrupt, amicable, meticulous, animosity, curriculum, electoral, transect, condolences, bugle and 132 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3027 more... -
Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for relevant.
bilby They probably used the word the a lot too. Jul 4, 2012
dailyword Holmes used this word a lot when he and Watson would talk about the case. Jul 4, 2012