Definitions

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

  • adjective Having or expressing a meaning.
  • adjective Having or expressing a covert or nonverbal meaning; suggestive.
  • adjective Having or likely to have a major effect; important.
  • adjective Fairly large in amount or quantity.
  • adjective Statistics Of or relating to observations or occurrences that are too closely correlated to be attributed to chance and therefore indicate a systematic relationship.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Signifying something; conveying a meaning; having a purport; expressive; implying some character, and not merely denotative: as, a significant word or sound.
  • Serving as a sign or indication; having a special or covert meaning; suggestive; meaning: as, a significant gesture; a significant look.
  • Important; notable; weighty; more strictly, important for what it indicates, but also, often, important in its consequences: opposed to insignificant: as, a significant event.
  • noun That which is significant; a meaning, sign, or indication.

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

  • adjective Fitted or designed to signify or make known somethingl having a meaning; standing as a sign or token; expressive or suggestive.
  • adjective Deserving to be considered; important; momentous.
  • adjective (Arith.) the figures which remain to any number, or decimal fraction, after the ciphers at the right or left are canceled. .
  • noun That which has significance; a sign; a token; a symbol.

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

  • adjective Signifying something; carrying meaning.
  • adjective Having a covert or hidden meaning
  • adjective Having a noticeable or major effect; notable
  • adjective Reasonably large in number or amount
  • adjective statistics Having a low probability of occurring by chance (for example, having high correlation and thus likely to be related).
  • noun That which has significance; a sign; a token; a symbol.

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

  • adjective too closely correlated to be attributed to chance and therefore indicating a systematic relation
  • adjective important in effect or meaning
  • adjective fairly large
  • adjective rich in significance or implication

Etymologies

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

[Latin significāns, significant-, present participle of significāre, to signify; see signify.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin significans, present participle of significare, from signum, "sign", + ficare, "do" or "make", variant of facere.

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Examples

  • The SEC's proposal asks questions about whether the SEC should define the term "significant error."

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • "If the commission were to define the term significant error ... we believe it would effectively be substituting its judgment" for the credit-rating agencies, S&P President Deven Sharma said in the letter.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • The SEC's proposal asks questions about whether the SEC should define the term "significant error."

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • The SEC's proposal asks questions about whether the SEC should define the term "significant error."

    Reuters: Press Release 2011

  • "If the commission were to define the term significant error ... we believe it would effectively be substituting its judgment" for the credit-rating agencies, S&P President Deven Sharma said in the letter.

    Reuters: Press Release 2011

  • "If the commission were to define the term significant error ... we believe it would effectively be substituting its judgment" for the credit-rating agencies, S&P President Deven Sharma said in the letter.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • As I would soon learn, not only was the word significant here but its specific connection with lilies was important as well.

    The Sacred Promise Phd Gary E. Schwartz 2011

  • As I would soon learn, not only was the word significant here but its specific connection with lilies was important as well.

    The Sacred Promise Phd Gary E. Schwartz 2011

  • As I would soon learn, not only was the word significant here but its specific connection with lilies was important as well.

    The Sacred Promise Phd Gary E. Schwartz 2011

  • As I would soon learn, not only was the word significant here but its specific connection with lilies was important as well.

    The Sacred Promise Phd Gary E. Schwartz 2011

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