relevancy

rel·e·van·cy
R1E1L1E1V4A1N1C3Y4
/ˈɹɛlɪvənsi/

noun

Sufficiency (of a statement, claim etc.) to carry weight in law; legal pertinence.

Similar
Opposite
Less commonFirst used 16th c.Scrabble 17

Meanings

nounrelevancy (countable and uncountable, plural relevancies)

plural relevancies

  1. ScotlandcountableuncountablelawSufficiency (of a statement, claim etc.) to carry weight in law; legal pertinence.First known use 16th c.
  2. uncountableThe degree to which a thing is relevant; relevance, applicability.First known use 17th c.

    It is the malpractice of the courts to confine evidence and discussion to the bounds of apparent relevancy.

    1842, Edgar Allan Poe, The Myster of Marie Rogêt
  3. countableA relevant thing.First known use 19th c.
    1 more example

    To believe that such talk really ever came out of people's mouths would be to believe that there was a time when time was of no value to a person who thought he had something to say; when it was the custom to spread a two-minute remark out to ten; when a man's mouth was a rolling-mill, and busied itself all day long in turning four-foot pigs of thought into thirty-foot bars of conversational railroad iron by attenuation; when subjects were seldom faithfully stuck to, but the talk wandered all around and arrived nowhere; when conversations consisted mainly of irrelevancies, with here and there a relevancy, a relevancy with an embarrassed look, as not being able to explain how it got there.

    1895, Mark Twain, Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences

Synonyms & antonyms

Opposite

nounthe relation of something to the matter at hand

Similar

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Translations

Finnish relevanttius, asiaankuuluvuus
  • relevanttiusthe degrees to which a thing is relevant
  • asiaankuuluvuusthe degrees to which a thing is relevant
French pertinence
  • pertinencethe degrees to which a thing is relevant
Polish ważność, znaczenie
  • ważnośćthe degrees to which a thing is relevant
  • znaczeniethe degrees to which a thing is relevant
Cite this entry
APA

relevancy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/relevancy

MLA

“relevancy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/relevancy. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “relevancy,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/relevancy.

Source: relevancy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.