different between importance vs dignity

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French importance, from Medieval Latin importantia.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?p??t?ns/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?p??t?ns/, [-?n?s]

Noun

importance (countable and uncountable, plural importances)

1. The quality or condition of being important or worthy of note.
2. significance or prominence.
3. personal status or standing.
4. Something of importance.

Translations

French

Etymology

From Medieval Latin importantia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.p??.t??s/
• Rhymes: -??s

Noun

importance f (plural importances)

1. importance
2. significance

Related terms

• important

Further reading

• “importance” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• comprenait

English

Etymology

From Middle English dignyte, from Old French dignité, from Latin d?gnit?s (“worthiness, merit, dignity, grandeur, authority, rank, office”), from d?gnus (“worthy, appropriate”), from Proto-Italic *degnos, from Proto-Indo-European *d?-nos, from *de?- (“to take”). See also decus (“honor, esteem”) and decet (“it is fitting”). Cognate to deign. Doublet of dainty.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d??n?ti/

Noun

dignity (countable and uncountable, plural dignities)

1. The state of being dignified or worthy of esteem: elevation of mind or character.
   • 1752, Henry Fielding, Amelia, I. viii

     He uttered this ... with great majesty, or, as he called it, dignity.

   • 1981, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, art. 5

     Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being.

2. Decorum, formality, stateliness.
   • 1934, Aldous Huxley, "Puerto Barrios", in Beyond the Mexique Bay:

     Official DIGNITY tends to increase in inverse ratio to the importance of the country in which the office is held.

3. High office, rank, or station.
   • 1781, Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, F. III. 231:

     He ... distributed the civil and military dignities among his favourites and followers.
4. One holding high rank; a dignitary.
5. (obsolete) Fundamental principle; axiom; maxim.

Synonyms

• worth
• worthiness

Coordinate terms

• augustness, humanness, nobility, majesty, grandeur, glory, superiority, wonderfulness

Related terms

• deign
• dignified
• dignify

Translations

See also

• affirmation
• integrity
• self-respect
• self-esteem
• self-worth

• dignity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• dignity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• tidying