Some interpretations of relative variable importance in the contexts of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and discriminant analysis (DA) are presented. Some indices potentially useful for the interpretations are presented, and the assessment of variable importance is illustrated using real data sets. Both descriptive discriminant analysis (DDA) and predictive discriminant analysis (PDA) are considered. Methods for numerically rank-ordering variables in DDA and PDA are described. Two real data sets are used to illustrate the applications for the ranking methods with the preferred indices of relative variable importance. One set consists of three groups of sizes 35, 81, and 37; the other of three groups of sizes 36, 27, and 23. A resampling approach, the bootstrap, was used to partially assess ranking method effectiveness. Taken as a whole, the examples warn against naively interpreting strict rankings of statistics related to variable importance. Ten tables present data from the applications of the various methods. (SLD)