important
UK /ɪmˈpɔː.tənt/ · US /ɪmˈpɔɹ.tənt/ adjective
Forms importanter importantest
- adjective Having relevant and crucial value; having import. “We thought it important for there to be a fire escape at the back of every building.”
- adjective (obsolete) Pompous; self-important.
Synonyms
significant weighty key big central consequential critical crucial epochful essential extraordinary fateful fatefraught fatesome heavy pivotal high on the totem pole historic innegligible life-or-death of import authoritative
Antonyms
negligible ignorable petty slight unimportant inconsequential insignificant minor trivial unremarkable
Etymology
From Middle English important, from Medieval Latin important-, importāns. By surface analysis, import (“to be important”) + -ant.
Displaced native Old English hēah and hefiġ.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Full of, or burdened by, import; charged with great interests; restless; anxious. [Obs.]
- adjective Carrying or possessing weight or consequence; of valuable content or bearing; significant; weighty.
Etymology [F. important. See Import, v. t.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “important”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details