meaningful

English

Etymology

From meaning +‎ -ful.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmiː.nɪŋ.fʊl/, [ˈmiː.nɪŋ.fl̩]

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.nɪŋ.fəl/, [ˈmi.nɪŋ.fl̩]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈmiː.nɪŋ.fʊl/, [ˈmɪi.nɪŋ.fl̩]

Adjective

meaningful (comparative more meaningful, superlative most meaningful)

1. Having meaning, significant.

   I think we made a meaningful contribution to this project today.

   • 1948, Ray Bradbury, Tomorrow's Child:

     "This baby is the one that counts. I dare say Polly here wouldn't want any other, would you, Polly?"
     "This baby, this baby," said Polly.
     Wolcott gave Peter Horn a meaningful look. Horn interpreted it correctly. This baby or no more Polly ever again. This baby or Polly would be in a quiet room somewhere staring into space for the rest of her life.

   • 2012 June 9, Owen Phillips, “Euro 2012: Netherlands 0-1 Denmark”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     But the Danes remained resolute in defence - largely thanks to a spirited display by captain Daniel Agger - and they went ahead with their first meaningful attack.

   • 2023 August 23, Mel Holley, “Network News: ... while Chiltern Railways targets low-emissions stock”, in RAil, number 990, page 7:

     In setting out a broad-brush approach, the Arriva-owned operator doesn't make any specific requirements, but it says the replacement trains "must achieve a meaningful reduction in the exhaust emissions and exterior noise levels compared to Chiltern's existing DMUs".

Antonyms

• meaningless

Derived terms

• deep and meaningful
• meaningfulish
• meaningfully
• meaningfulness
• meaningfulsome
• unmeaningful

Translations

having meaning, significant

• Bulgarian: смислен (bg) (smislen), съдържателен (bg) (sǎdǎržatelen)
• Catalan: significatiu (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 有意義／有意义 (yǒu yìyì)

• Czech: smysluplný (cs)
• Dutch: zinvol (nl)
• Esperanto: senchava, signifa
• Finnish: merkittävä (fi), merkityksellinen (fi)
• French: significatif (fr), qui a du sens
• Galician: significativo
• German: bedeutend (de), bedeutungsvoll (de), sinnhaft (de)
• Hindi: सार्थक (hi) (sārthak), अर्थपूर्ण (arthapūrṇ)
• Hungarian: kifejező (hu)
• Indonesian: berarti (id)
• Interlingua: significante
• Italian: significativo (it), sensato (it), efficace (it), costruttivo (it)
• Japanese: 有意義な (ja) (ゆういぎな, yūigi-na)
• Korean: 유의미(有意味)하다 (yuuimihada)
• Latvian: jēdzīgs, nozīmīgs
• Lithuanian: prasmingas
• Macedonian: зна́чаен (znáčaen)
• Maori: whaitikanga
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: meningsfull, meiningsfull, meningsfylt, meiningsfylt

  Nynorsk: meiningsfull, meiningsfylt

• Polish: znaczący (pl), znaczny (pl)
• Portuguese: significativo (pt)
• Romanian: semnificativ (ro)
• Russian: зна́чимый (ru) (znáčimyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: smislen (sh)
• Spanish: significativo (es)
• Swedish: meningsfull (sv), betydelsefull (sv)
• Telugu: అర్థవంతమైన (arthavantamaina)
• Turkish: anlamlı (tr), manalı (tr), manidar (tr)
• Ukrainian: значний (značnyj), значущий (značuščyj)
• Vietnamese: có ý nghĩa