significativi

Significativi is the masculine plural form of the Italian adjective significativo. It is used to describe nouns that have meaning, importance, or statistical relevance. In everyday language, it appears in phrases such as “risultati significativi” (significant results) or “dati significativi” (meaningful data). In research contexts, the term often signals that an effect or difference is statistically significant, as in “un risultato significativo” or “significativi a livello del 5%.”

Etymology and sense: significativi derives from Latin significativus, from significare, meaning to signify or to indicate. The core sense ties to meaning and importance, which extends from everyday usage to specialized scientific language.

Grammar and related forms: significativi is the masculine plural form; feminine plural is significative, while singular forms are significativo (masculine) and significativa (feminine). The adverbial form is significativamente, and phrases like “in modo significativo” are common to express a meaningful or statistically significant manner. The noun related to the concept is significatività, often used in statistics as “significatività” or “significatività statistica.”

Usage and nuance: while frequently associated with statistics, significativi can describe anything deemed meaningful or noteworthy. In scientific writing, it collocates with terms like livello di significatività or significatività statistica to refer to the threshold at which results are considered unlikely to be due to chance. The word can also convey importance or impact in broader contexts, complementing synonyms such as rilevante or importante.