Meaning & use

relevance

noun·Academic

The quality of being closely connected to the matter at hand and useful for understanding or deciding it.

See it in a sentence

The lawyer questioned the relevance of the old photograph to the current case.

Teachers try to show students the relevance of history to problems people face today.

A note on using this word

Relevance is often used with the preposition to, as in relevance to a topic, rather than relevance for.

Words with a similar meaning

pertinenceapplicabilitysignificance

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

irrelevance

Make it your own

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