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historical significance

historical significance

7 4.5
How important something from the past is for later events or ideas
  • noun
  • /hɪˈstɔrɪkəl sɪɡˈnɪfɪkəns/
translation icon : significado histórico
  • The historical significance of the civil rights movement is still felt today.
  • cultural and historical significance
  • literary historical significance
  • great historical significance

And there's a historical significance to this.

Examples

  • Both the site and the sculpture are imbued with historical significance.

    Academic text (2000)
  • And those legacies, far from being only of historical significance, are relevant to the alliance's globally important mission today.

    Academic text (2009)
  • Such communities have been much better examined around the world, and their historical significance noted.

    Academic text (2011)
  • I would agree; that would be a site of far too much historical significance to disturb.

    Blog text (16)
  • I would feature a cover story on the historical significance of Native Americans in this region.

    Blog text (9)
  • As a former assistant at Alabama, he understood the historical significance of this day.

    Blog text (13)
  • Although the exhibit lasts only one year, it carries historical significance for the museum and for the artists.

    Academic text (2004)
  • Darkhan is an important town in eastern Mongolia with political and historical significance.

    Academic text (2006)
  • However, certain motifs are repeated throughout Morocco, suggesting that they have deep cultural and historical significance.

    Academic text (2006)
  • Its historical significance would reverberate around the world, providing a catalyst for the irreversible dismantling of old colonial powers throughout the rest of the century.

Synonyms

importance
vshistorical significance
663 1.0

A quality that makes something have great value or effect

frames that quality as the power to shape past events or ideas
legacy
vshistorical significance
358 4.2

Things from the past that people keep and remember, for example money or achievements

shows how those items affected later events or influenced ideas
significance
vshistorical significance
194 3.8

How important something is or how much it matters

ties importance specifically to past influence on events or ideas
historical impact
vshistorical significance
4.2

A lasting effect of an event that changes later events and society

focuses on importance in shaping events people or ideas
historicalness
vshistorical significance
8.1

Being important because of its history

stresses its role in shaping events people or ideas

How Significant

historical significance
7 4.5

Surface Forms

Morphology

historical + significance

The meaning 'the importance in history' is directly and transparently composed from 'historical' (relating to past events) + 'significance' (degree of importance). This adjective+noun construction and its logic are cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Historical significance puts historical ('from the past') and significance ('a strong mark') together to paint a picture of a bright mark on the story of the past that shows what mattered. So it means the 'importance' something had in the past.