importance

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

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

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.

Borrowed from Medieval Latin importantia.

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃s/

  • Audio; “l'importance”:

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s
• Homophone: importances

importance f (plural importances)

1. importance

   Antonym: inimportance

2. significance

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

• comprenait