importance
- 1The quality of being significant or valuable enough to deserve attention; how much something matters.
Historians stress the importance of checking primary sources.
The committee debated the importance of the proposed change.
UsageUsually the importance of something, of great importance, or attach importance to something.
Similarmoment, significance, consequence, weight
Oppositeinsignificance, triviality
- 2A person's high status or standing, whether others grant it or the person only feels it.
The duke moved through the hall with an exaggerated sense of his own importance.
Newcomers sometimes inflate their own importance within the firm.
UsageOften in a sense of your own importance or an air of importance, which suggest someone feels too proud.
Similarstatus, standing, stature, prestige, eminence
Oppositeobscurity
- 3A thing or matter that carries weight or deserves notice.
Practice
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Origin
Medieval Latin importantia passed into Middle French as importance and then into Middle English as importaunce. Looked at from the surface, it is import ("to be important") with the suffix -ance added.