significant figure

[ sig-nif-i-kuhnt fig-yer ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

each of the digits forming a number that expresses a determined degree of calculation: a sequence of significant figures always begins with the number’s first nonzero digit:
Rounding each of the measurements to three significant figures, your answers to the first two problems should be 19.0 inches and 4.52 kilometers, respectively.

First recorded in 1610–20

He was a significant figure in his time, friendly with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Jack Lemmon.

Ezekiel, whose characterizations of the false prophets are remarkably striking, uses about them a significant figure of speech.

Hannah West was one of those ciphers to which somebody else is always the significant figure.

God is the significant figure which gives value to the row of ciphers of which every life is without Him made up.

In some ways he is a more significant figure than either Harte or Hay.

God is the only significant figure, and human need may add the ciphers.

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