English Reference
Noun

relevance

n. uncountable
C1 Advanced Oxford US /ˈɹɛɫəvəns/ UK /ɹˈɛlɪvəns/ rel·e·vance UK spelling relevances

n.the quality of being useful or connected to what is happening now. If something has relevance, it matters to the person or the situation you are talking about.

n.the quality or state of being closely connected or appropriate to the matter at hand. Often used to describe the applicability of information or ideas to a specific context.


SIMPLE

The teacher explained the relevance of history to our lives.

CONTEXTUAL

The lawyer argued that the witness's personal life had no relevance to the criminal case being tried.

COMPLEX

In an era of rapid technological change, many traditional industries struggle to maintain their relevance as consumer habits shift toward digital-first experiences.

Usage

Commonly followed by the preposition 'to' when indicating the subject of connection.

Usage assess relevance · direct relevance · establish relevance

To explore whether the strategy might eventually have relevance for people, the researchers tested it in human brain models.

ScienceDaily· 7 Aug 2026

Among other things, PageRank treated links as signals of authority, which made relevance partly a question of how the web itself pointed to a page.

Ars Technica· 7 Aug 2026

Common in science and history writing


From relevant + -ance.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry
Level C1 · Advanced
Frequency Frequent
Updated