VocabauraVOCABAURA

significant

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Having a noticeable or major effect.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

suhgnifihkuhnt

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

səɡˈnɪfɪkənt

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Having a noticeable or major effect.

  2. Reasonably large in number or amount.

  3. Having a covert or hidden meaning.

  4. Signifying something; carrying meaning.

noun

  1. That which has significance; a sign; a token; a symbol.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Very Common
Formality
Formal
Typical Use
Formal & written English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Having a noticeable or major effect.

Used this way, significant is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use significant

  • “A significant change in tax laws.”adjective

Share your sentence

Write your own example sentence using “significant”. We review each one before it appears.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Having a noticeable or major effect

highly significant

Reasonably

significant number

Too

significant part

Other combinations

statistically significantsignificant differencesignificant rolesignificant effectsignificant impact

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • significantlyadverbDerived adverb

    In a statistically significant way.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • significant digitnounCompound term

    Any digit of a number that is known with certainty.

  • significant figurenounCompound term

    Any digit of a number that is known with certainty.

  • significant othernounCompound term

    A person (not necessarily a spouse) with whom you cohabit and share a long-term sexual relationship.

Usage

AcademicFormal

Common in academic and professional writing; in research it often means statistically measurable, not simply "big".

Common: “a significant increase in scores”

Less natural: “a significant nice day”

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: that which has significance

meaning

Antonyms

adjective

Sense: having a noticeable or major effect

insignificantnonsignificant

noun

Sense: that which has significance

nonsignificantinsignificant

Use This Word

See how this word sounds in a real sentence.

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Related Learning

Guides that use this word in context.

Collections with this word

Themed sets you can browse for free.

Use it yourself

Knowing “significant” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.