But languages, like species, evolve. Over the 20th century, the word significant came to mean important. Today, outside of statistics, when we say that something is significant, we usually mean that it has value and import – that it ought to be paid attention to. This creates ambiguity when the term is applied now to scientific findings. When a newspaper article describes a new scientific result as a significant new finding or a significant advance in our knowledge, for example, is that a statistical statement or a value judgement? Sometimes the meaning is blurred.