Denotation
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 The act of denoting, or something (such as a symbol) that denotes countable, uncountable
- 2 the most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression; the class of objects that an expression refers to wordnet
- 3 The primary, surface, literal, or explicit meaning of a signifier such as a word, phrase, or symbol; that which a word denotes, as contrasted with its connotation; the aggregate or set of objects of which a word may be predicated. countable, uncountable
"The denotations of the two expressions "the morning star" and "the evening star" are the same (i.e. both expressions denote the planet Venus), but their connotations are different."
- 4 the act of indicating or pointing out by name wordnet
- 5 The intension and extension of a word countable, uncountable
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- 6 Something signified or referred to; a particular meaning of a symbol countable, uncountable
- 7 Any mathematical object which describes the meanings of expressions from the languages, formalized in the theory of denotational semantics countable, uncountable
- 8 A first level of analysis: what the audience can visually see on a page. Denotation often refers to something literal, and avoids being a metaphor. countable, uncountable
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Through both denotation and connotation, many Turkish names are weighty with symbolism. Before the Second World War, the European system of name-giving was adopted, and the people of Turkey chose new surnames for themselves from a list of names which had been created on the basis of etymology and semantics."
Etymology
From Late Latin dēnotātiō, from Latin dēnotāre (“to denote, mark out”) + -tiō (suffix forming nouns of action), from dē- (“completely”) + notāre (“to mark”); equivalent to denote + -ation.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.