Meaningful

How to spell meaningful

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce meaningful

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does meaningful mean?

1. adjectiveHaving serious, worthwhile significance or purpose; not trivial.

Meaningful in a sentence

• The two managers finally held a meaningful discussion about the budget.

• Volunteering at the shelter gave her work a more meaningful sense of purpose.

Where does meaningful come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built entirely from native English parts, which is why it feels so familiar yet trips writers on its tidy single 'l'. At its heart is the verb 'mean', from Old English 'maenan', which meant 'to intend' or 'to signify' and traces back to a Germanic root shared with the Dutch 'menen' and the German 'meinen'. Adding the gerund ending gave the noun 'meaning', the sense or intention carried by something, recorded from the medieval period onward. The suffix '-ful', literally 'full of', is the same element seen in 'careful' and 'hopeful', and it always settles into a single 'l' when bolted onto a word even though 'full' itself has two. 'Meaningful' assembled this way is comparatively young, appearing in the early 1800s to describe something rich in significance, and the spelling trap lives precisely in that lone '-ful' ending.

How the word is built

• mean (to intend, signify)
• -ing (forming the noun/gerund 'meaning')
• -ful (full of, characterised by)