meaningful
/ˈmi.nɪŋ.fl̩/adjective
meaningful is spelled M-E-A-N-I-N-G-F-U-L. The wrong spelling people search most is meaningfull: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 40 of all searches for the word. Meaningful is an adjective meaning “Having meaning, significant”.
How many letters and syllables are in meaningful?
| Letters | 10: M-E-A-N-I-N-G-F-U-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 14 times per million words; the 5,679th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, meaningfull, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell meaningful?
Meaningful is spelled M-E-A-N-I-N-G-F-U-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 40 of the searches for meaningful in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is meaningful?
Meaningful appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,679th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce meaningful?
- UK /ˈmiː.nɪŋ.fl̩/
- UK [ˈmiː.nɪŋ.fl̩]
- US /ˈmi.nɪŋ.fl̩/
Meaningful has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-meaningful.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of meaningful
- more meaningful comparative
- most meaningful superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does meaningful mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Having meaning, significant.
I think we made a meaningful contribution to this project today.
- 2
Full of implication; heavy with unstated meaning.
"So you enjoyed yourself, did you," she said, with a meaningful smile.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Meaningful in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense having meaning, significant:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | significatif, qui a du sens |
| German | bedeutend, bedeutungsvoll, sinnhaft |
| Portuguese | significativo |
| Spanish | significativo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does meaningful come from?
From meaning + -ful.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).