importance
nounUK /ɪmˈpɔːtəns/ · US /ɪmˈpɔɹtəns/
Etymology From Middle English importaunce, from Middle French importance, from Medieval Latin importantia. By surface analysis, import (“to be important”) + -ance.
1
The quality or condition of being important or worthy of note.
- The recording speed is also of importance in detecting flutters of high frequency.1985, Robert Kraus, The Practice of Echocardiography, page 143:
2
significance or prominence.
3
personal status or standing.
4
Something of importance.
- 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.1895, Kenneth Graham, The Golden Age, London, page 5:
- Derived terms
- nonimportance, place importance on, self-importance, unimportance