significance

plural significances

1. countableuncountableThe extent to which something matters; importance

   As a juror your opinion is of great significance for the outcome of the trial.

   2 more examples

   As the nudities and mythologies of the sixteenth century lost something of their vogue, the draperies acquired greater significance in the general effect; and the impression of agitation was accentuated by exaggerated flutters of wide-flung expanses of carved stuffs.

   1924, George Henry Chase, Chandler Rathfon Post, A History of Sculpture, page 372

   Of more significance in the nature of branch development; in the Jubulaceae, as in the Porellaceae, branches are acroscopic and normally replace a ventral leaf lobe.

   1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 5

2. countableuncountableMeaning.

   the significance of her gesture was unclear