significant figure
noun
Simple meaning
A digit that is meaningful about the precision of a measurement.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
suhgnifihkuhntfihgyerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
səɡˈnɪfɪkəntfɪɡjɚ
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
mathematics
A digit that is meaningful with respect to the precision of a measurement; that is, excluding any leading zeroes, trailing rounding or placeholder zeroes, and non-zero digits not warranted by the accuracy of a derivation or measurement.
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see significant, figure.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A digit that is meaningful with respect to the precision of a measurement; that is, excluding any leading zeroes, trailing rounding or placeholder zeroes, and non-zero digits not warranted by the accuracy of a derivation or measurement.
Used this way, significant figure is a specialist word with a clearly warm, approving pull. This is a mathematical use: it is defined precisely and belongs to working with figures and calculations rather than to ordinary conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Careful and exacting
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Mathematics
- Geometry
- Academic writing
- Education/classroom
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.