Origin: Latin suffix -ance
Relevance has 2 different meanings across 1 category:
The property or state of being relevant or pertinent.
"The relevance of his argument became clear when he directly addressed the core issues raised by the committee."
In plain English: Relevance is how much something matters to you right now because it connects directly to what you are doing or thinking about.
"The discussion about last year's budget was irrelevant to our current project, so no one paid attention to it."
Usage: Use relevance to describe how closely something connects to the matter at hand, distinguishing it from related but less direct concepts like pertinence. Ensure your subject is directly applicable to the specific topic under discussion rather than merely tangentially connected.
The word relevance comes from combining the adjective relevant with the suffix -ance to form a noun meaning state or quality of being relevant. It entered English directly through French influence during the Middle Ages.