meaningful
Americanadjective
adjective
-
having great meaning or validity
-
eloquent, expressive
a meaningful silence
Usage
What are other ways to say meaningful? Something that is meaningful, such as a meaningful wink or meaningful choice, is full of meaning, purpose, or value. Do you know how meaningful differs from the synonyms expressive, significant, and suggestive? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of meaningful
Explanation
Use the adjective meaningful to describe something that has a purpose, like a political rally for a cause you believe in strongly. You would probably say that your backpacking trip across Asia was meaningful, or worthwhile, but you might not describe three hours watching bad TV shows as meaningful. When something is important or significant, it is meaningful, or "full of meaning." Meaning itself comes from the word mean, which has its roots in the Old English mænan, "to signify, tell, or complain."
Vocabulary lists containing meaningful
Power Suffix: -ful
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Very Necessary: Synonyms for "Important"
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-ful
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The most famous are "lying flat", when people opt out of the rat race entirely, and "involution", a rather clunky term now commonly used to describe intense competition which generates little meaningful reward.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
An attorney for Caldwell on Thursday disputed the investigation’s findings and said he wasn’t provided a meaningful opportunity to address each of these allegations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
The result suggests that magnetism may have played a meaningful role in controlling how material moved through the protoplanetary disk as the sun was forming.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 25, 2026
“This is just some semantics more than anything, since it doesn’t really have any meaningful impact on the market at all.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
I do not know if what I have unearthed will be meaningful.
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
