Significant means important, large, or having a noticeable effect; great enough to be worth noticing.
What Does Significant Mean?
Significant comes from Latin significare, meaning "to indicate" or "to mean". At its core, something significant is something that "sends a sign" — it points to something worth paying attention to. The word entered English in the late 16th century and has become one of the most widely used adjectives in both academic and everyday language.
You use significant when you want to say that something is large enough, important enough, or noticeable enough to matter. It can describe a change (a significant improvement), a person's role (a significant figure in history), or a quantity (a significant amount of money). Unlike important, which focuses on value, significant often highlights that something can be observed or measured.
A common ESL error is using significant where considerably or quite would be more natural in spoken English. Significant is formal and works best in writing, reports, academic work, and professional contexts. Its adverb form, significantly, is equally important to learn — phrases like "significantly better" and "significantly higher" appear constantly in academic texts.
Example Sentences
| Sentence | Usage note |
|---|---|
| There has been a significant improvement in her test scores this term. | academic / education context |
| The new law will have a significant impact on small businesses. | formal / legal register |
| She played a significant role in the success of the project. | professional context |
| A significant number of students reported feeling stressed before exams. | quantitative use |
| The discovery was significant because it changed our understanding of the disease. | predicative use after 'be' |
| Prices have risen significantly over the past six months. | adverb form: significantly |
| Meeting her for the first time was a significant moment in his life. | personal / emotional register |
| The results were not statistically significant, so further research is needed. | scientific / statistical use |
Word Forms
Learning all forms of significant will help you use it confidently across different sentence types.
Common Collocations
These are the most natural word combinations with significant in English. Learning collocations as phrases helps you sound more fluent.
| Collocation | Example phrase |
|---|---|
| significant change | "The policy led to a significant change in behaviour." |
| significant impact | "Social media has had a significant impact on communication." |
| significant role | "She played a significant role in shaping the company's culture." |
| significant difference | "There is a significant difference between the two groups." |
| significant progress | "We have made significant progress towards our goal." |
| significant increase | "There has been a significant increase in online sales." |
| significant factor | "Diet is a significant factor in preventing heart disease." |
| statistically significant | "The results were statistically significant at the 95% confidence level." |
Significant in Academic Writing
The word significant is one of the highest-frequency adjectives in academic English. It appears in research papers, essays, reports, and textbooks across every subject area. Mastering it is essential for anyone preparing for IELTS, Cambridge exams, or university study in English.
In academic contexts, significant most often describes findings, changes, and differences that are measurable. You will often see it in passive and impersonal structures:
| Academic sentence pattern | Example |
|---|---|
| It is significant that… | "It is significant that the control group showed no improvement." |
| A significant + noun + was + observed/found/recorded | "A significant decrease in temperature was recorded on day three." |
| The most significant + noun + is/was… | "The most significant finding was the link between sleep and memory." |
| …have/had a significant effect/impact on… | "The intervention had a significant effect on student motivation." |
| Significantly + comparative adjective | "Group A performed significantly better than Group B." |
Register Guide: Formal vs Everyday English
Understanding when to use significant and when a simpler word is more natural will make your English sound more authentic.
| Situation | More natural choice | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Casual conversation | big / huge / really important | "It was a really big deal for her." |
| Semi-formal email | considerable / notable | "There has been a considerable delay." |
| Academic essay | significant / substantial | "A significant body of research supports this view." |
| Business report | significant / material | "There was a significant rise in quarterly revenue." |
| Scientific paper | statistically significant | "The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05)." |
Common Mistakes
Watch Out For
It was a very significant discovery. (overly informal intensifier)
In academic writing, prefer: "a highly significant discovery" or "a particularly significant discovery".
The results were significantly. (missing what they were significant in)
Use the adverb to modify adjectives or verbs: "The results were significantly higher." / "Costs fell significantly."
This is a significant problem because it is important. (circular / redundant)
Follow significant with a clause explaining why: "This is a significant problem because it affects thousands of patients."
Significant vs Similar Adjectives
Several adjectives are close in meaning to significant but carry different nuances. Choosing the right word will improve the precision of your writing and speaking.
| Word | Core nuance | Typical collocation |
|---|---|---|
| significant | measurably large or important; formal | significant change, significant impact |
| important | high in value or priority; neutral register | important decision, important issue |
| major | greater than others of the same type; comparative | major problem, major city, major surgery |
| notable | worthy of being noticed or mentioned; descriptive | notable achievement, notable exception |
| considerable | larger than average in size or degree; formal | considerable effort, considerable time |
| substantial | large in amount, value, or size; often financial | substantial sum, substantial evidence |
| remarkable | unusual and worthy of admiration; stronger praise | remarkable achievement, remarkable talent |
Tips for Learners
Here are practical strategies for mastering significant and its word family:
- Learn the full word family together: significant / significantly / significance / signify / insignificant.
- When reading academic texts, highlight every occurrence of significant and notice what noun follows it.
- Practice writing sentences with the pattern: "This is significant because…" — this forces you to explain the importance rather than simply labelling it.
- In IELTS Academic Writing Task 1, use significant increase / significant decrease / significantly higher to describe graph data — it boosts your lexical resource score.
- Remember: significantly is almost always more impressive in a written sentence than "a lot" or "very much".
- Avoid overuse: if every sentence contains significant, vary with notable, considerable, or marked.
- In speaking, significant can sound overly formal. In conversations, "big", "major", or "noticeable" often flow more naturally.
- Use the collocation play a significant role when describing a person's or thing's contribution — it is one of the most frequent phrases in academic writing.
- Combine with negation for nuance: "not statistically significant", "not significantly different" — these phrases are essential in scientific discussion.
Synonyms for Significant
These words share a similar meaning to significant. Study the differences above before using them interchangeably.
Antonyms for Significant
Use these words when you want to describe something that is too small or unimportant to be worth noticing.
Significant Across Subject Areas
The word significant is used in nearly every academic subject, but its exact meaning and collocations vary slightly by field. Reading examples from different disciplines will deepen your understanding and help you use the word with confidence in any context.
| Subject area | Typical use | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Science & medicine | statistically significant results, findings | "The drug produced a statistically significant reduction in blood pressure." |
| History | significant events, figures, turning points | "The invention of the printing press was a significant moment in European history." |
| Business & economics | significant growth, significant costs, significant risk | "The company reported significant growth in its Asian markets." |
| Education | significant progress, significant difference in attainment | "There was a significant difference in results between the two teaching methods." |
| Psychology | significant effect, significant correlation | "The study found a significant correlation between exercise and reduced anxiety." |
| Environment | significant impact, significant threat | "Deforestation poses a significant threat to biodiversity." |
| Law & politics | significant legislation, significant ruling | "The court issued a significant ruling on data privacy rights." |
Related Words to Explore
Expand your vocabulary by exploring these related words. Each one links to its own definition, examples, and practice exercises.
Practise Significant
Reinforce your learning with these free LexFizz exercises. Flash Cards will help you recognise significant quickly; Complete the Sentence puts it in context; Cloze Dropdown tests whether you can select the right form of the word.
Quick Reference: Significant
| Word | significant |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| CEFR level | B1 — Intermediate |
| Pronunciation | /sɪɡˈnɪfɪkənt/ |
| Adverb | significantly |
| Noun | significance |
| Verb | signify |
| Opposite | insignificant |
| Key collocations | significant change, significant impact, significant role, significant difference, statistically significant |
| Register | Formal; common in academic, scientific, and professional writing |
| Common error | Using "very significant" — prefer "highly significant" in formal contexts |
| Latin root | significare — to indicate, to mean |