What does importance mean?

Definitions for importance
ɪmˈpɔr tnsim·por·tance

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word importance.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. importancenoun

    the quality of being important and worthy of note

    "the importance of a well-balanced diet"

  2. importance, grandnessnoun

    a prominent status

    "a person of importance"

Wiktionary

  1. importancenoun

    The quality or condition of being important or worthy of note

  2. importancenoun

    significance or prominence

  3. importancenoun

    personal status or standing

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Importancenoun

    Etymology: French.

    A notable passion of wonder appeared in them; but the wisest beholder, that knew no more but seeing, could not say if the importance were joy or sorrow. William Shakespeare, Winter's Tale.

    It had been pity you should have been put together with so mortal a purpose, as then each bore, upon importance of so slight a nature. William Shakespeare, Cymbeline.

    We consider
    Th' importance of Cyprus to the Turks. William Shakespeare, Othello.

    Thy own importance know,
    Nor bound thy narrow views to things below. Alexander Pope.

    Maria writ
    The letter at sir Toby's great importance;
    In recompence whereof he hath married her. William Shakespeare.

Wikipedia

  1. Importance

    Importance is a property of entities that matter or make a difference. For example, World War II was an important event and Albert Einstein was an important person because of how they affected the world. There are disagreements in the academic literature about what type of difference is required. According to the causal impact view, something is important if it has a big causal impact on the world. This view is rejected by various theorists, who insist that an additional aspect is required: that the impact in question makes a value difference. This is often understood in terms of how the important thing affects the well-being of people. So on this view, World War II was important, not just because it brought about many wide-ranging changes but because these changes had severe negative impacts on the well-being of the people involved. The difference in question is usually understood counterfactually as the contrast between how the world actually is and how the world would have been without the existence of the important entity. It is often argued that importance claims are context- or domain-dependent. This means that they either explicitly or implicitly assume a certain domain in relation to which something matters. For example, studying for an exam is important in the context of academic success but not in the context of world history. Importance comes in degrees: to be important usually means to matter more within the domain in question than most of the other entities within this domain. The term "importance" is often used in overlapping ways with various related terms, such as "meaningfulness", "value", and "caring". Theorists frequently try to elucidate these terms by comparing them to show what they have in common and how they differ. A meaningful life is usually also important in some sense. But meaningfulness has additional requirements: the life should be guided by the agent's intention and directed at realizing some form of higher purpose. In some contexts, to say that something is important means the same as saying that it is valuable. More generally, however, importance refers not to value itself but to a value difference. This difference may also be negative: some events are important because they have very bad consequences. Importance is often treated as an objective feature in contrast to the subjective attitude of caring about something or ascribing importance to it. Ideally, the two overlap: people subjectively care about things that are objectively important. Nonetheless, the two may come apart when people care about unimportant things or fail to care about important things. Some theorists distinguish between instrumental importance relative to a specific goal in contrast to a form of importance based on intrinsic or final value. A closely related distinction is between importance relative to someone and absolute or unrestricted importance. The concept of importance is central to numerous fields and issues. Many people desire to be important or to lead an important life. It has been argued that this is not always a good goal since it can also be realized in a negative way: by causing a lot of harm and thereby making an important but negative value difference. Common desires that are closely related include wanting power, wealth, and fame. In the realm of ethics, the importance of something often determines how one should act towards this thing, for example, by paying attention to it or by protecting it. In this regard, importance is a normative property, meaning that importance claims constitute reasons for actions, emotions, and other attitudes. On a psychological level, considerations of the relative importance of the aspects of a situation help the individual simplify its complexity by only focusing on its most significant features. A central discussion in the context of the meaning of life concerns the question of whether human life is important on the cosmic level. Nihilists and absurdists usually give a negative response to this question. This pessimistic outlook can in some cases cause an existential crisis. In the field of artificial intelligence, implementing artificial reasoning to assess the importance of information poses a significant challenge when trying to deal with the complexity of real-world situations.

ChatGPT

  1. importance

    Importance refers to the quality or state of being significant, consequential, or having great value, relevance or influence. It is often used to indicate something that needs to be given attention or priority because of its potential impact or necessity in a specific context or system.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Importancenoun

    the quality or state of being important; consequence; weight; moment; significance

  2. Importancenoun

    subject; matter

  3. Importancenoun

    import; meaning; significance

  4. Importancenoun

    importunity; solicitation

  5. Etymology: [F. importance. See Important.]

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'importance' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #1005

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'importance' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2398

  3. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'importance' in Nouns Frequency: #464

How to pronounce importance?

How to say importance in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of importance in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of importance in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of importance in a Sentence

  1. Adam Waytz:

    In general, humans care about other humans, so when we humanize something inanimate, it makes us care about the thing more, naming things can make them more memorable, easier to recall, and certainly it makes things feel more fluent or easy to process. Given that work shows that easily processed information takes on outsized importance in our minds, it is likely that naming things can give them importance as well.

  2. Nicole Neily:

    This is too little too late from this Administration, which has made abundantly clear through its actions that it views actual parental input as an inconvenience; let’s remember, this is the same set of bureaucrats that coordinated for weeks with the National School Board Association on its since-retracted letter which cited the Patriot Act, the organizations hand-picked to participate do not speak for the views of most American parents; if they did, we would not have seen such a groundswell of activism over the past few years. Families came to the sobering realization that groups like the National PTA were as ideologically compromised as the elected officials that abandoned our children. I would have hoped the Biden Administration would realize the importance of bringing many perspectives to the table - but I am not surprised that other voices are not welcome.

  3. Anthony Davis:

    Most Bangkokians would be unaware of the existence of this pier and its importance to the Chinese tourist industry in the city.

  4. Brian Battle:

    There's a lack of information to trade and the magnitude of the importance of the Fed next week can't be overstated, so you don't want to put any position on in front of something that has the potential to be such big news.

  5. Matthias Gorny:

    We have made several scientific expeditions off the coast of La Higuera due to the environmental importance of this place, therefore, we wanted to collaborate in the search for Itata, taking advantage of the technology we have, and thanks to the images of our underwater robot, we were able to confirm that what was there was the ship's remains.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

importance#1#2946#10000

Translations for importance

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

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"importance." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/importance>.

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