relevant

Definitions

re- (again) + lev (lift) + -ant (adj.) = 'lifting up again.' Latin relevāre literally meant to raise again; in legal usage it shifted to 'bearing upon a case' — something relevant is lifted up and set before the matter so it counts. Irrelevant information stays sunk out of view.

Common Collocations

• 1.highly relevant高度相关
• 2.directly relevant直接相关
• 3.relevant experience相关经验
• 4.relevant information相关信息

Example Sentences

• 1.

  Please keep your comments relevant to the topic we're discussing.

• 2.

  Her years of nursing gave her highly relevant experience for the role.

• 3.

  The judge ruled that the old emails were not relevant to the case.

Easily Confused

relevant vs related — Both touch on connection, but relevant means it matters to the matter at hand (relevant evidence affects the verdict), while related just means there's a link, important or not (a related story). Something can be related but not relevant.