signify
verb
Simple meaning
To give a meaning or an importance.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
signuhfySay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɪɡnəfaɪ
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.
verb
To give (something) a meaning or an importance.
Make known with a word or signal
“He signified his wish to pay the bill for our meal.”
To show one's intentions with a sign etc.; to indicate, announce, or portend.
To make a difference; to matter (in negative or interrogative expressions).
To mean; to betoken.
To create a sign out of something.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To give (something) a meaning or an importance.
Used this way, signify is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It suits considered writing and prepared speech.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The meaning of a word or expression.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to give (something) a meaning or an importance
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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.