Significant

How to spell significant

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce significant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does significant mean?

1. adjectiveSufficiently great or important to be worthy of attention; notable.
2. adjectiveUnlikely to have occurred by chance alone, indicating a real effect in statistical analysis.

Significant in a sentence

• The new contract represents a significant source of revenue for the firm.

• The difference between the two groups was statistically significant.

• There was a significant drop in temperature overnight.

• The trial showed a significant reduction in symptoms among patients.

Where does significant come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin significans, the present participle of significare, meaning 'to make a sign' or 'to indicate'. That verb was itself built from signum, meaning 'a mark, token or sign', combined with facere, meaning 'to make' or 'to do', so the literal idea was 'making something stand as a sign'. English took it up in the late 1500s, first carrying the sense of something that conveys a meaning or carries weight, before broadening to its modern meaning of something important or substantial. The same signum root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'signal', 'signature' and 'design', which is a useful reminder that the word is spelled with a silent g in the middle: sig-n, not sin. The -fic- element, from facere, is the same piece you see in 'magnificent' and 'specific', and the ending settles on -ant rather than -ent, a small spelling trap for an otherwise everyday word.

How the word is built

• sign (mark, token)
• -fic- (from facere: to make)
• -ant (adjective suffix)