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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > RELEVANT

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pronounce RELEVANT:

RELL uh vunt

Hear it.

connect this word to others:

Because relevant means "related, connected, applicable, or appropriate," you'd think it's based on the word relate. But instead, it's based on relieve.

Which points us toward one of those weird, winding tales of words crossing languages and changing meaning. In this case, the Latin relevare, "to lighten, to relieve, or to help," entered French as an adjective, relevant. There, its meaning warped from "helpful" to "depending on." Then, it entered English as "relevant," warping first to mean "legally sufficient," and later to mean what it does now: "related, or pertinent."

Okay, so now we know why the word relevant has lev in it, that little Latin tidbit that usually means "to lighten, or to raise." Lev is no longer relevant to relevant, but, there it is, a little etymological vestige, showing us how relevant belongs to the same family of words as lever, levee, elevate, lev___ ("lightness of mood, playfulness"), and allev____ ("to lighten something, like stress or pain"). Could you recall those last two?

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

Like I mentioned above, "relevant" traces back to a Latin word meaning "to lighten, or to help." But the meaning changed over time as the word worked its way through Latin and French into English.

Today, something relevant is related, important, and connected (to whatever situation you're talking about).

The exact opposite is "irrelevant." (Say it "ear RELL uh vunt;" hear it here.) Irrelevant things are unrelated, unimportant, and unconnected (to whatever situation you're talking about).

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "a relevant piece of information;" "Their comments were funny but not exactly relevant."

Other forms: 

Like we said, the precise opposite of "relevant" is "irrelevant."

The adverbs are "relevantly" & "irrelevantly."

For the nouns, you can use "relevance" & "irrelevance," or, if you prefer, "relevancy" & "irrelevancy."

how to use it:

I like "relevant" and "irrelevant." They remind me of broccoli and carrots: they're common, they're a bit bland and boring, and children want nothing to do with them; however, they're quite grown-up, and they add value and respectability to our diet of words.

Often we use them to point out how something is relevant (or irrelevant) to a specific situation, discussion, or event. 

When we've already established which situation we're talking about, then we can simply point out relevant and irrelevant facts, details, and points; relevant and irrelevant people, places, things, events, and so on.

And as you'll see in both examples below, we can also talk broadly about things that are relevant or irrelevant today, meaning they have (or don't have) a place in society, people care about them (or don't), and they're part of an ongoing global conversation (or not).

examples:

"Everyone has a soft spot for certain comedians with big, exaggerated stage personas—Andy Kaufman, Pee-wee Herman, Phyllis Diller—but that school of comedy has never seemed less relevant than it does right now."
   — Ken Jennings, Planet Funny: How Comedy Ruined Everything, 2018

"Somebody take me back to the days
Before this was a job, before I got paid,
Before it ever mattered what I had in my bank,
Yeah, back when I was tryna get a tip at Subway,
And back when I was rappin' for the hell of it,
But, nowadays, we rappin' to stay relevant."
   — B.o.B, "Airplanes," 2010

has this page helped you understand "relevant"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "relevant" without saying "germane" or "apposite."

try it out:

Think back to a class you took when you were younger that you particularly loved, hated, or found challenging.

Talk about some facts or skills you learned that are now especially relevant (and/or especially irrelevant) to your life, your career, your hobbies, or your relationships.

Here's my example! Ninth grade biology. I really loved my teacher and the projects he let us do. He did teach us a lot of facts that seem irrelevant to my life, like the anatomical structure of cnidarians, but he also taught us one especially relevant skill: how to plan and execute a three-dimensional artistic display. He had us spend an entire marking period turning our classroom into a rainforest, using construction paper and whatever other random stuff we could find. It was amazing. I learned to really embrace and plan out the process, and to work with materials on hand. That skill proved relevant later in life on similar large-scale projects. I'll never be a biologist, but that class was so awesome and surprisingly relevant!




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is Make Your Point Before & After!

I’ll give you a clue, and you give me a verbal mashup including at least one word or phrase we've studied before.

For example, if I give you "It's someone who meets you at the library to join you in a state of deep, serious, often gloomy thoughtfulness," then you give me "brown study buddy." It's a mashup of "brown study" and "study buddy."

Try this one today: Even though he's not the official CEO, he quietly exerts power and influence over the entire company, often while sipping the same hot tea that Captain Picard sips.

To reveal the first two hints, highlight the hidden white text.

Hint 1: The number of words in this Before & After is... three.

Hint 2: The first word in this Before & After is... "earl."

Hint 3: Use this term.

To see the answer, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. RELEVANT and IRRELEVANT are precise opposites. But a pretty close opposite of RELEVANT is

A. DEMONSTRATIVE (openly expressive of emotions).
B. INVIDIOUS (nasty and harmful, or causing envy or hatred).
C. TANGENTIAL (only a tiny bit connected to the topic or situation at hand).

2. Knowing the history of the word "relevant," with its ties to words like _____, you could reasonably infer that, in ballet, a relevé is _____.

A. "relate" and "lateral" .. a sliding to one side
B. "relieve" and "levity" .. a lifting upward from the feet
C. "rely" and "league" .. a gathering of many dancers into a cluster




Answers to the review questions:
1. C
2. B

Answer to the game question: Earl Gray eminence.


a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
      36 ways to study words.
      Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
      How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
      How to improve any sentence.
      How to motivate our kids to write.
      How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
      How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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