a system and method are provided for discovering significant patterns from a list of records in a dataset . each record includes a set of items , and each significant pattern includes a subset of items such that a significance of the pattern exceeds a significance level . a significance is computed for each item in the list of records to determine significant items . the records are randomly sampled to select a sample portion of the records . ambiguous patterns are identified against the sample portion of the records and verified against the entire list of records in the dataset .