merkitsevälle

Merkitsevälle is a Finnish inflected form of the adjective merkitsevä, meaning significant or meaningful. It represents the allative singular form of the adjective and is used when the related noun is in the allative case. In practice, merkitsevä is used to describe something that has significance, relevance, or importance. The form merkitsevälle appears in phrases such as merkitsevälle tulokselle or merkitsevälle tavalla, where it links to a noun or noun phrase in the allative or in a construction that requires that form.

Meaning and usage

The core meaning of merkitsevä is close to “significant,” “noteworthy,” or “meaningful.” In everyday language, it can describe events, findings, or arguments that stand out as important. In academic and scientific writing, the term appears in fixed expressions such as tilastollisesti merkitsevä, which denotes statistical significance. Beyond statistics, merkitsevä can describe the practical or theoretical importance of a result, argument, or observation.

Morphology and grammar

Merkitsevä follows the regular inflection pattern of Finnish adjectives. Its allative singular form merkitsevälle is used when the noun it modifies is in the allative case, for example in phrases like merkitsevälle tavalla (in a significant manner) or merkitsevälle tulokselle (to a significant result) depending on the noun’s case. The adjective also forms other case variants to agree with its noun.

See also

Statistical significance in Finnish is commonly expressed with tilastollisesti merkitsevä or tilastollinen merkitsevyys, illustrating how merkitsevä functions in domain-specific contexts.