Merkityksellistä

Merkityksellistä is the partitive singular form of the Finnish adjective merkityksellinen, meaning meaningful or significant. The term describes something that has meaning, relevance, or importance within a given context. It can refer to linguistic meaning as well as practical significance or value in a situation, data, information, or work.

Etymology and related forms: merkityksellinen is built from the noun merkitys (meaning, significance) with the suffix -llinen, which denotes “having the quality of.” Related words include merkitys (meaning), merkittävä (significant, important), and merkityksellisyys (meaningfulness). The form merkityksellistä is used when the object of discussion is in the partitive case, for example when speaking about meaning or significance in a broader sense or in non-countable contexts.

Usage: merkityksellistä is common in both everyday and formal Finnish, often to emphasize relevance or practical value. It frequently collocates with nouns such as tietoa (information), tutkimus (research), teko (action), and tekijä (work/des )

Examples of use include describing information as merkityksellistä tietoa (meaningful information) or noting that a result has merkityksellistä arvoa in a given discussion. The term can express subjective importance (something that matters to someone) as well as objective significance (relevance to a field or issue).

Nuances: merkityksellinen vs. merkittävä are close in meaning; merkityksellistä emphasizes meaning, relevance, or value in context, whereas merkittävä often stresses importance or consequence. The antonym is merkityksetön (meaningless or insignificant).

See also: merkitys, merkittävä, merkityksellisyys, merkityksetön.