relevant

English

Etymology

From Scots relevant meaning "legally pertinent," used in Scottish legal circles starting in the early 1500s, and first used in English in the 1700s. Borrowed from Latin relevāns, relevāntem, present active participle of relevō (“lift up again, lighten, relieve”), from re- (“again”) + levō (“lift”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛləvənt/, [ˈɹʷɛləvənt]

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛləvənt
• Hyphenation: rel‧e‧vant

Adjective

relevant (comparative more relevant, superlative most relevant)

1. Related, connected, or pertinent to a topic.
   1. (especially) Directly related, connected, or pertinent, with important ramifications or implications.

      His mother provided some relevant background information concerning his medical condition.

      • 2025 February 14, Heather Westwood, Will Mandy, Rebecca Brewer, “The Relationship Between Interoception, Alexithymia, Autistic Traits and Eating Pathology in Autistic Adults”, in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders‎^[1], →DOI:

        Although autistic women with AN have cited concerns with weight/shape as less relevant in the development of their ED (Kinnaird, Norton, Stewart, et al., 2019), these could still have been a contributing factor.

2. Not out of date; current.
   • 1973 December 20, “Hansen says Christmas time for thanks, hope”, in The Aberdeen Times‎^[2]:

     The message of Christmas is still relevant as we near the end of a troubled year and the beginning of an uncertain but challenging new year.

   • 2008, Scott Cooper, Fritz Grutzner, Birk Cooper, Tips and Traps for Marketing Your Business‎^[3], McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 39:

     Motorola was quickly losing the cell-phone battle to Nokia for a time. When they launched the RAZR phone and combined it with their "Hello Moto" campaign, it made the brand relevant again.

3. (slang, by extension) Famous, popular, or noteworthy in a contemporary context.

Synonyms

• (directly related to a topic): applicable, germane, in point (legal), pertinent, salient; See also Thesaurus:pertinent
• (not out of date): current, prevailing, prevalent, rife, up-to-date

Antonyms

• irrelevant (in binary cognitive schema, as compared with schematic spectrums allowing for notions of "directly relevant", "not directly relevant", "less relevant" and "especially relevant".)

Derived terms

• biorelevant
• immunorelevant
• nonrelevant
• omnirelevant
• relevantly
• safety-relevant
• unrelevant

Related terms

• relevance
• relevancy
• relief
• relieve
• reliever

Translations

directly related, connected, or pertinent to a topic

• Arabic: مُتَّصِل (muttaṣil), مُتَعَلِّق (mutaʕalliq)
• Belarusian: адпаве́дны (adpavjédny)
• Bulgarian: уместен (bg) (umesten)
• Catalan: rellevant (ca), pertinent
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 有關 / 有关 (zh) (yǒuguān), 相關 / 相关 (zh) (xiāngguān)

• Czech: relevantní (cs)
• Dutch: relevant (nl)
• Esperanto: rilata, grava (eo)
• Estonian: seotud, asjakohane
• Finnish: asiaankuuluva, asianmukainen (fi), liittyvä (fi), merkityksellinen (fi), tähdellinen (fi), oleellinen (fi), olennainen (fi), relevantti (fi)
• French: pertinent (fr)
• Galician: relevante (gl)
• German: relevant (de)
• Hindi: सुसंगत (hi) (susaṅgat), प्रासंगिक (hi) (prāsaṅgik)
• Hungarian: lényeges (hu), releváns (hu), idevágó (hu)
• Icelandic: viðeigandi
• Indonesian: relevan (id), bersangkut (id), bersangkutan (id)
• Irish: ábhartha
• Italian: rilevante (it)
• Japanese: 適切 (ja) (てきせつ, tekisetsu), 関連した (ja) (かんれんした, kanren shita)
• Korean: 관련되다 (ko) (gwallyeondoeda)
• Kyrgyz: орчундуу (orcunduu)
• Macedonian: соо́дветен (soódveten), у́месен (úmesen), целосоо́бразен (celosoóbrazen), по́врзан (póvrzan)
• Māori: hāngai
• Norwegian: relevant (no)
• Polish: związany (pl), odpowiedni (pl), stosowny (pl), istotny (pl), relatywny (pl) ((legal))
• Portuguese: relevante (pt), pertinente (pt)
• Romanian: relevant (ro) m, pertinent (ro) m
• Russian: соотве́тствующий (ru) (sootvétstvujuščij), уме́стный (ru) (uméstnyj), (stilted) релева́нтный (ru) (relevántnyj), относя́щийся к де́лу (otnosjáščijsja k délu), име́ющий отноше́ние (iméjuščij otnošénije)
• Spanish: pertinente (es), relevante (es), venir al caso (es) (verb, colloquial), hacer al caso (verb, colloquial), encajar (es) (verb, colloquial), venir al propósito
• Swedish: relevant (sv)
• Turkish: alakalı (tr), ilgili (tr), ilişkili (tr) (law)
• Ukrainian: відпові́дний (vidpovídnyj)
• Welsh: perthnasol (cy)

not out of date

• Esperanto: aktuala
• Hungarian: aktuális (hu), időszerű (hu)
• Italian: prevalente (it)
• Macedonian: актуе́лен (aktuélen)
• Polish: aktualny (pl)
• Russian: актуа́льный (ru) (aktuálʹnyj)

Further reading

• “relevant”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “relevant”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• levanter

Danish

Etymology

From Latin relevans.

Adjective

relevant (neuter relevant, plural and definite singular attributive relevante)

1. relevant

Declension

Inflection of relevant

	positive	comparative	superlative
indefinite common singular	relevant	mere relevant	mest relevant2
indefinite neuter singular	relevant	mere relevant	mest relevant2
plural	relevante	mere relevant	mest relevant2
definite attributive1	relevante	mere relevant	mest relevante

¹ When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite,
the corresponding "indefinite" form is used.
² The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

Antonyms

• irrelevant

Related terms

• relevans

See also

• vedkommende
• aktuel

References

• “relevant” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin relevans, present active participle of relevō (“lift up again, lighten, relieve”), from re- (“again”) + levō (“lift”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /reːləˈvɑnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: re‧le‧vant
• Rhymes: -ɑnt

Adjective

relevant (comparative relevanter, superlative relevantst)

1. relevant

   Antonym: irrelevant

Declension

Declension of relevant
uninflected	relevant
inflected	relevante
comparative	relevanter
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		relevant	relevanter	het relevantst het relevantste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	relevante	relevantere	relevantste
	n. sing.	relevant	relevanter	relevantste
	plural	relevante	relevantere	relevantste
definite		relevante	relevantere	relevantste
partitive		relevants	relevanters	—

Derived terms

• relevantie

Descendants

• → Indonesian: relevan

Further reading

• “relevant” in Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal – Officiële Spelling, Nederlandse Taalunie. [the official spelling word list for the Dutch language]

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.l(ə).vɑ̃/

Participle

relevant

1. present participle of relever

Further reading

• “relevant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

German

Pronunciation

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ant

Adjective

relevant (strong nominative masculine singular relevanter, comparative relevanter, superlative am relevantesten)

1. relevant

   Synonyms: bedeutend, maßgeblich

   Antonyms: irrelevant, unbedeutend, unmaßgeblich

Declension

Positive forms of relevant number & gender singular plural masculine feminine neuter predicative er ist relevant sie ist relevant es ist relevant sie sind relevant strong declension (without article) nominative relevanter relevante relevantes relevante genitive relevanten relevanter relevanten relevanter dative relevantem relevanter relevantem relevanten accusative relevanten relevante relevantes relevante weak declension (with definite article) nominative der relevante die relevante das relevante die relevanten genitive des relevanten der relevanten des relevanten der relevanten dative dem relevanten der relevanten dem relevanten den relevanten accusative den relevanten die relevante das relevante die relevanten mixed declension (with indefinite article) nominative ein relevanter eine relevante ein relevantes (keine) relevanten genitive eines relevanten einer relevanten eines relevanten (keiner) relevanten dative einem relevanten einer relevanten einem relevanten (keinen) relevanten accusative einen relevanten eine relevante ein relevantes (keine) relevanten Comparative forms of relevant number & gender singular plural masculine feminine neuter predicative er ist relevanter sie ist relevanter es ist relevanter sie sind relevanter strong declension (without article) nominative relevanterer relevantere relevanteres relevantere genitive relevanteren relevanterer relevanteren relevanterer dative relevanterem relevanterer relevanterem relevanteren accusative relevanteren relevantere relevanteres relevantere weak declension (with definite article) nominative der relevantere die relevantere das relevantere die relevanteren genitive des relevanteren der relevanteren des relevanteren der relevanteren dative dem relevanteren der relevanteren dem relevanteren den relevanteren accusative den relevanteren die relevantere das relevantere die relevanteren mixed declension (with indefinite article) nominative ein relevanterer eine relevantere ein relevanteres (keine) relevanteren genitive eines relevanteren einer relevanteren eines relevanteren (keiner) relevanteren dative einem relevanteren einer relevanteren einem relevanteren (keinen) relevanteren accusative einen relevanteren eine relevantere ein relevanteres (keine) relevanteren Superlative forms of relevant number & gender singular plural masculine feminine neuter predicative er ist am relevantesten sie ist am relevantesten es ist am relevantesten sie sind am relevantesten strong declension (without article) nominative relevantester relevanteste relevantestes relevanteste genitive relevantesten relevantester relevantesten relevantester dative relevantestem relevantester relevantestem relevantesten accusative relevantesten relevanteste relevantestes relevanteste weak declension (with definite article) nominative der relevanteste die relevanteste das relevanteste die relevantesten genitive des relevantesten der relevantesten des relevantesten der relevantesten dative dem relevantesten der relevantesten dem relevantesten den relevantesten accusative den relevantesten die relevanteste das relevanteste die relevantesten mixed declension (with indefinite article) nominative ein relevantester eine relevanteste ein relevantestes (keine) relevantesten genitive eines relevantesten einer relevantesten eines relevantesten (keiner) relevantesten dative einem relevantesten einer relevantesten einem relevantesten (keinen) relevantesten accusative einen relevantesten eine relevanteste ein relevantestes (keine) relevantesten

Derived terms

• sicherheitsrelevant, systemrelevant

Further reading

• “relevant” in Duden online
• “relevant”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[4] (in German)

Latin

Verb

relevant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of relevō

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

relevant (neuter singular relevant, definite singular and plural relevante)

1. relevant

Antonyms

• irrelevant

Related terms

• relevans

References

• “relevant” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

relevant (neuter singular relevant, definite singular and plural relevante)

1. relevant

Antonyms

• irrelevant

Related terms

• relevans

References

• “relevant” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French relevant.

Adjective

relevant m or n (feminine singular relevantă, masculine plural relevanți, feminine/neuter plural relevante)

1. relevant
2. (linguistics) distinctive

   Synonym: distinctiv

Declension

Declension of relevant

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	relevant		relevantă	relevanți	relevante
	definite	relevantul		relevanta	relevanții	relevantele
genitive- dative	indefinite	relevant		relevante	relevanți	relevante
	definite	relevantului		relevantei	relevanților	relevantelor

Further reading

• “relevant”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

Swedish

Adjective

relevant (comparative mer relevant, superlative mest relevant)

1. relevant

Declension

Inflection of relevant

Indefinite	positive	comparative	superlative1
common singular	relevant	mer relevant	mest relevant
neuter singular	relevant	mer relevant	mest relevant
plural	relevanta	mer relevanta	mest relevanta
masculine plural2	relevante	mer relevanta	mest relevanta
Definite	positive	comparative	superlative
masculine singular3	relevante	mer relevante	mest relevante
all	relevanta	mer relevanta	mest relevanta

¹ The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.
² Dated or archaic.
³ Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.

Antonyms

• irrelevant

Related terms

• relevans

Further reading

• “relevant”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)