import

Formsimports, importing, imported

Pluralimports

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To bring something into a country from abroad, especially goods meant for sale or trade.

   They import most of their electronics from overseas manufacturers.

   The country imports nearly all of its crude oil.

   Oppositeexport

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A product or good brought in from an outside source, especially one meant for sale or trade.

   Foreign cars remain a popular import in this market.

   Tariffs raised the price of many imports last year.

   Oppositeexport

   Note

   Latin importō, 'carry in', from in plus portō, 'I carry', sits plainly inside this noun: an import is something carried across a border. Countable, it usually appears in the plural with a named good in front, such as copper imports or oil imports. John Towfighi's 2025 report on copper tariffs uses it this way. Its opposite is export, and the uncountable trade itself is the same word without the plural.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The activity or practice of bringing goods into a country from abroad.

   Import has grown steadily as demand for foreign goods rises.

   The government tightened the rules on import this year.

   Similarimportation

   Oppositeexport

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   In computing, to take a file created in another system or another version of a program and load it into an application.

   Import the spreadsheet into the new accounting software before you start.

   The program imports data from older file formats automatically.

   Similarload, transfer

   Oppositeexport

   Note

   Software borrowed the trade verb for data crossing between programs. A file is imported from an older version or another system, and exported to send it the other way. The usual frame is import X from Y, or import X into Y: import files from older versions, import a spreadsheet into new software.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To be important, significant, or of consequence.

   Such decisions import greatly when lives are at stake.

   Whether the report arrives today or tomorrow hardly imports.

   Similarmatter, count, signify, weigh

   Note

   Here a second word begins. The 'matter' verbs came through Italian importare and French importer, separate borrowings from the same Latin importō as the trade sense. Used without an object, it simply means to matter, and older prose conjugates it like any verb: Thomas Salusbury in 1661 writes 'it importeth'. Today it reads as formal or literary, and in speech matter has taken its place.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To be of importance to a person or thing.

   These developments import the entire community.

   The verdict imports her future profoundly.

   Similarconcern, affect, interest

   Note

   Add a person as object and the verb says whom something matters to, with no 'to' in between. Shakespeare's 'it importeth none here' and Dryden's 'what imports it you?' show the construction at its sharpest. The second means roughly 'what is it to you?'. Modern English needs 'matter to' to say the same thing.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To mean or signify something.

   Those words import a clear threat.

   His silence imported more than any speech could.

   Similarmean, signify, imply, convey, indicate

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To be of great importance, or essential, that a particular thing happen.

   It imports greatly that the treaty be ratified this session.

   Such precautions import that no one enter without permission.

   Similarmatter

   Note

   Where the duty sense takes a to-infinitive, this one takes a that-clause naming what must happen. Shelley's The Cenci (1819) gives the full pattern, with much as an intensifier and should inside the clause: 'It much imports your house / That all should be made clear.' The person concerned can still stand as object before the clause.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To be required of someone as a duty.

   It imports the trustees to safeguard the funds.

   Such obligations import each member to attend.

   Similarbehoove, oblige, obligate, bind

   Note

   The weight here is duty rather than mere importance. The frame is impersonal: it, then a person, then a to-infinitive. David Hume's The History of England (1762) gives the pattern: 'It imports us to get all the aid and assistance we can.' Read it as 'it is up to us' or 'we must'. The subject it carries no meaning of its own.

10. 10
    nounPhilippinescountable

    A foreign player competing in a domestic sports league.

    Each club is allowed only three imports on the roster.

    The star import scored twice in his debut match.

    Similarforeigner

    Note

    Philippine sports usage carries the trade metaphor over to people: a club brings in an import much as a market brings in goods. It is countable and works like an ordinary job title, as in 'the star import' or 'three imports on the roster'. Outside the Philippines it may read as jargon, so 'foreign player' is the safer choice there.

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