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Definitions

meaningful

[mee-ning-fuhl] / ˈmi nɪŋ fəl /
ADJECTIVE
significant
Synonyms
STRONGEST
consequential essential important purposeful relevant serious substantial useful valid worthwhile
WEAK
allusive big clear concise considerable deep eloquent exact explicit expressive heavy indicative intelligible material momentous pointed pregnant sententious succinct suggestive weighty
Antonyms
STRONGEST
insignificant little minor nonessential small trivial unimportant unsubstantial worthless
WEAK
meaningless useless

Usage

What are other ways to say meaningful? When describing forms of expression, the adjectives meaningful and significant imply an underlying and unexpressed thought whose existence is plainly shown although its precise nature is left to conjecture. Meaningful implies a secret and intimate understanding between the persons involved: Meaningful looks passed between them. Significant suggests conveying important or hidden meaning: On hearing this statement, he gave the officers a significant glance. Expressive suggests conveying, or being capable of conveying, a thought, intention, emotion, etc., in an effective or vivid manner: an expressive gesture.  Suggestive implies an indirect or covert conveying of a meaning, sometimes mentally stimulating, sometimes verging on impropriety or indecency: a suggestive story or remark.

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.

Running marathons while pregnant feels "even more meaningful" than her previous achievements in athletics, according to Hauger-Thackery.

From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026

Chuquipa Sanchez hopes the lawsuit will lead the district to make meaningful changes so administrators will take future reports of bullying seriously.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 21, 2026

By design, the deportation process moves so fast that detainees do not have time to obtain meaningful legal representation — a violation of their constitutional, civil and human rights.

From Salon • Apr. 21, 2026

He said he expects the artificial-intelligence boom to carry on driving growth for the company’s cloud-computing business Amazon Web Services, adding that rapid recurring revenue growth for AWS customer Anthropic “provides a meaningful tailwind.”

From Barron's • Apr. 20, 2026

It was just an articulation, tender and meaningful, of the thing that had caught us both by surprise.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

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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