meaningful

(mē'nĭng-fəl)
adj.

1. Having meaning, function, or purpose.
2. Fraught with meaning; significant: A meaningful glance. See synonyms at expressive.

meaningfully mean'ing·ful·ly adv.
meaningfulness mean'ing·ful·ness n.

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The journalist and literary critic Philip Howard wrote in 1978 that 'ongoing situations and meaningful dialogues are two popular pieces of jargon...at present', and they still are. Meaningful is essentially the opposite of meaningless, i.e. 'having meaning', as in a meaningful utterance. But meaning has other meanings, which are reflected in other uses of meaningful, especially 'important, significant, noteworthy', so that things such as discussions, tests, results, work, and even relationships can be called meaningful. There is some justification for using the word when the notion of something having meaning is present:

Chris and Jayne turned to each other with raised eyebrows and meaningful looks—P. Hennessy, 1983.

But alternatives such as important, significant, and effective should be considered when it is importance rather than meaning that is the issue:

It will take time for these changes in strategy to have a meaningful influence on financial performance—Birmingham Post, 2007.

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adjective

1. Effectively conveying meaning, feeling, or mood: eloquent, expressive, meaning, significant. See express, show/hide.
2. Conveying hidden or unexpressed meaning: pregnant, significant, suggestive. See meaning.
3. Having great significance: big, consequential, considerable, historic, important, large, material, monumental, significant, substantial. See important/unimportant.

adj

Definition: significant
Antonyms: inconsequential, insignificant, meaningless, useless, worthless

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - med mening, betydningsfuld, meningsfuld

Nederlands (Dutch)
veelbetekenend, betekenisvol, met een betekenis/bedoeling, met een bepaalde functie (taalkunde)

Français (French)
adj. - sérieux, riche (une expérience), entendu (un sourire), significatif (un geste), constructif, utile, positif (un procédé)

Deutsch (German)
adj. - bedeutungsvoll

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - βαρυσήμαντος, σημαντικός, μεστός νοήματος ή περιεχομένου, γεμάτος σημασία, που λέει πολλά

Italiano (Italian)
significativo

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - significativo

Русский (Russian)
многозначительный, выразительный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - significativo, válido, justificado

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - meningsfull, viktig

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
意味深长的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 意味深長的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 의미가 있는, 뜻 깊은

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 意味をもった, 意義のある, 意味深長な

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) ذا معنى‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮משמעותי‬

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