importance

English

Etymology

From Middle English importaunce, from Middle French importance, from Medieval Latin importantia. By surface analysis, import (“to be important”) +‎ -ance.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɔːtəns/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɔɹtəns/, [-ʔn̩s]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

importance (countable and uncountable, plural importances)

1. The quality or condition of being important or worthy of note.
2. significance or prominence.
3. personal status or standing.
4. Something of importance.
   • 1895, Kenneth Graham, The Golden Age, London, page 5:

     It was incessant matter for amazement how these Olympians would talk over our heads - during meals, for instance - of this or the other social or political inanity, under the delusion that these pale phantasms of reality were among the importances of life.

Derived terms

• nonimportance
• place importance on
• self-importance
• unimportance

Translations

quality or condition of being important or worthy of note

Albanian : rëndësi (sq) Arabic: أَهَمِّيَّة f (ʔahammiyya) Azerbaijani: əhəmiyyət (az) Bashkir: әһәмиәт (əhəmiət) Basque: garrantzi (eu) Bulgarian: ва́жност (bg) f (vážnost) Catalan: importància (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 重要 (zh) (zhòngyào) Czech: důležitost (cs) f Danish: vigtighed c, betydning (da) c Dutch: belangrijkheid (nl) f, belang (nl) n Esperanto: graveco Finnish: tärkeys (fi), painoarvo (fi) French: importance (fr) f Galician: importancia (gl) f Georgian: მნიშვნელობა (mnišvneloba) German: Wichtigkeit (de) f, Belang (de) m Haitian Creole: enpòtans Hindi: महत्त्व m (mahattva), ज़रूरत f (zarūrat), अहमियत f (ahmiyat) Hungarian: fontosság (hu) Icelandic: mikilvægi n Irish: tábhacht f Italian: importanza (it) f Japanese: 重要性 (ja) (jyūyōsei), 大切さ (taisetsusa) Khmer: សារៈសំខាន់ (km) (sarsaamkhan) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: گرنگی (ckb) (gringî) Northern Kurdish: giringî (ku) f Latin: momentum n Latvian: svarīgums m, nozimība f Macedonian: важност f (važnost) Malayalam: പ്രാധാന്യം (prādhānyaṁ) Maori: hiranga, mahurangi Occitan: importància (oc) f Pashto: ارزښت (ps) m (arzə́x̌t) Persian: اهمیت (fa) (ahammiyyat) Polish: ważność (pl) f, doniosłość (pl) f Portuguese: importância (pt) f Romanian: importanță (ro) f, însemnătate (ro) f Russian: ва́жность (ru) (vážnostʹ), зна́чимость (ru) (znáčimostʹ) Scottish Gaelic: cudrom m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ва́жно̄ст f, зна̏ча̄ј m, зна́че̄ње n Roman: vážnōst (sh) f, znȁčāj (sh) m, znáčēnje (sh) n Spanish: importancia (es) Swahili: umuhimu (sw) Swedish: vikt (sv) c, betydelse (sv) c Tamil: முக்கியத்துவம் (ta) (mukkiyattuvam) Tibetan: གལ་གནད (gal gnad), གཙིགས (gtsigs), འགངས ('gangs) Turkish: önem (tr), ehemmiyet (tr) Ukrainian: важли́вість (uk) f (važlývistʹ) Urdu: اہمیت Uzbek: ahamiyat (uz) Yiddish: וויכטיקייט f (vikhtikeyt) Zulu: ukubaluleka class 15, ubukhulu class 14

significance or prominence

Albanian : rëndësia Bulgarian: значе́ние (bg) n (značénie) Chinese: Mandarin: 重要 (zh) (zhòngyào) Estonian: tähtsus Finnish: tärkeys (fi) German: Wichtigkeit (de) f Greek: σημασία (el) f (simasía) Hindi: प्रमुखता f (pramukhtā) Irish: tábhacht f Italian: importanza (it) f Japanese: 重要性 (ja) (jyūyōsei), 大切さ (taisetsusa) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: گرنگی (ckb) (gringî) Latvian: svarīgums m, nozimība f Malayalam: പ്രാധാന്യം (prādhānyaṁ) Maori: hiranga Persian: اهمیت (fa) (ahammiyyat) Portuguese: importância (pt) f Romanian: importanță (ro) f Scottish Gaelic: cudrom m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: зна́че̄ње n, зна̏ча̄ј m, ва́жно̄ст f Roman: znáčēnje (sh) n, znȁčāj (sh) m, vážnōst (sh) f Swahili: umuhimu (sw) Swedish: vikt (sv) c Tibetan: གལ་གནད (gal gnad), གཙིགས (gtsigs), འགངས ('gangs) Yiddish: וויכטיקייט f (vikhtikeyt)

personal status or standing

Japanese: 名声 (ja) (meisei) Latvian: svarīgums m Maori: mahurangi Portuguese: status (pt) m Swahili: umuhimu (sw) Swedish: ställning (sv) c Tibetan: གོ་འཕང (go 'phang)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Telugu: (please verify) ప్రాముఖ్యత (te) (prāmukhyata)

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin importantia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃s/

  • Audio; “l'importance”:

    (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s
• Homophone: importances

Noun

importance f (plural importances)

1. importance

   Antonym: inimportance

2. significance

Derived terms

• inimportance

Related terms

• important

Further reading

• “importance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• comprenait