different between significant vs fraught

English

Etymology

From Latin significans, present participle of significare, from signum (“sign”) + ficare (“do, make”), variant of facere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s???n?.f?.k?nt/

• (US, also) IPA^(key): /s???n?.f?.??nt/

Adjective

significant (comparative more significant, superlative most significant)

1. Signifying something; carrying meaning.

   Synonym: meaningful

   • It was well said of Plotinus, that the stars were significant, but not efficient.
2. Having a covert or hidden meaning.
3. Having a noticeable or major effect.

   Synonym: notable
4. Reasonably large in number or amount.
5. (statistics) Having a low probability of occurring by chance (for example, having high correlation and thus likely to be related).

Usage notes

• This word may be ambiguous in some situations. In formal writing, care should be taken with comments such as "the difference is significant," because it is not clear without contextual clues whether significant modifies the fact that there is a difference ("notable"), or the difference itself ("large in number or amount"). In some such situations, large and other synonyms may be used in its place.

Synonyms

• important

Antonyms

• insignificant
• ignorable
• negligible
• slight

Related terms

• significance
• significand
• significant other
• signify

Translations

Noun

significant (plural significants)

1. That which has significance; a sign; a token; a symbol.
   • a. 1850, William Wordsworth, The Egyptian Maid

     And in my glass significants there are

References

significant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Catalan

Verb

significant

1. present participle of significar

Latin

Verb

significant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of signific?

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /f???t/
• Rhymes: -??t
• (US) IPA^(key): /f??t/, /f??t/
• Homophone: frot (in accents with the cot-caught merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English fraught, freght, from Middle Dutch vracht or Middle Low German vracht (“freight money”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fra- (intensive prefix) + Proto-Germanic *aihtiz (“possession”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?ey?- (“to possess”). Cognate with Old High German fr?ht (“earnings”), Old English ?ht (“owndom”), and a doublet of freight. More at for-, own. Adjective from Middle English, passive participle of the verb fraughten, from Middle Dutch vrachten.

Noun

fraught (usually uncountable, plural fraughts)

1. (obsolete) The hire of a ship or boat to transport cargo.
2. (obsolete) Money paid to hire a ship or boat to transport cargo; freight

   fraught money.

3. (obsolete) The transportation of goods, especially in a ship or boat.
4. (obsolete) A ship's cargo, lading or freight.
5. (Scotland) A load; a burden.
6. (Scotland) Two bucketfuls (of water).

Derived terms

• fraught-free

Related terms

• freight

Etymology 2

From Middle English fraughten, fraghten, freghten, from Middle Dutch vrachten, vrechten, from the noun (see above).

Verb

fraught (third-person singular simple present fraughts, present participle fraughting, simple past and past participle fraughted)

1. (transitive, obsolete except in past participle) To load (a ship, cargo etc.).
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To form the cargo of a vessel.
   • 1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest

     Had I been any god of power, I would / Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er / It should the good ship so have swallow'd and / The fraughting souls within her.

Adjective

fraught (comparative more fraught, superlative most fraught)

1. (of a cargo-carrier) Laden.
2. (figuratively, with with) Loaded up or charged with; accompanied by; entailing.

   • a discourse fraught with all the commending excellences of speech

   • a. 1865, Isaac Taylor, Epidemic Whims

     enterprises fraught with world-wide benefits

   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 236d.

     […] all these matters are fraught with paradox, just as they always have been

3. (with with) Furnished, equipped.
4. Distressed or causing distress, for example through complexity.

   a fraught relationship; a fraught process

Translations

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “fraught”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “fraught”, in Online Etymology Dictionary