significantly
Americanadverb
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in a way or as a fact that is important and deserves attention.
Significantly, Australia was a nation born in peacetime, not war.
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by a relatively great amount or to a relatively high degree.
She seems to have grown significantly as a character—her decisions are more mature, for one thing.
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in a way that carries special, secret, or private meaning.
The detective looked significantly at the collection of pills on the table, but said nothing.
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Statistics. in a way or to a degree that is unlikely to occur by chance and therefore indicates a systematic cause.
These results show that sleep significantly affects memory organization, even in the infant brain.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of significantly
Explanation
Anything that happens significantly happens in a big way. A significantly happier person has gotten much happier. Moving into a significantly bigger house means you can finally get that indoor pony. Significant things are important. When you see the word significantly, you know something is a big deal. A significantly higher tax rate would upset many people, because taxes went up a lot. A significantly lower-than-usual snowfall would upset skiers, because no one likes skiing on dry ground. A significantly timed speech happens at a time that is meaningful for some reason, like on a major holiday. This word often means the same as importantly.
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.
Masters athletes experience a 5% to 6% decline in performance per decade, significantly less than the 10% to 12% for non-training individuals.
From Barron's • May 23, 2026
A 2024 study in Bioengineering, for example, found that inward and outward foot rotation affected different peaks of knee loading, while not significantly increasing ankle joint moments in the group studied.
From Science Daily • May 22, 2026
Even though Bundibugyo virus is in the same family of viruses, the genes that vaccines and drugs target differ significantly.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
That led Judge Perry to retort: “You are significantly undercutting your mea culpa here by standing behind the charges and continuing to vilify these particular defendants.”
From Slate • May 22, 2026
A magnitude 7 quake happening deep in the mantle–say, four hundred miles down–might cause no surface damage at all, while a significantly smaller one happening just four miles under the surface could wreak widespread devastation.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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.
