Reference
noun, verb ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 A relationship or relation (to something). archaic, countable, literary, uncountable
"A man is beloued of a man, in that he is a man, but all theſe are farre more eminent and great, when they ſhal proceed from a ſanctified ſpirit, that hath a true touch of Religion, and a reference to God."
- 2 the act of referring or consulting wordnet
- 3 A measurement one can compare (some other measurement) to. countable, uncountable
- 4 the most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression; the class of objects that an expression refers to wordnet
- 5 Information about a person, provided by someone (a referee) with whom they are well acquainted. countable, uncountable
"Changes will befall, and friends may part, / But distance only cannot change the heart / And were I call’d to prove th’ assertion true, / One proof should serve—a reference to you."
Show 17 more definitions
- 6 the relation between a word or phrase and the object or idea it refers to wordnet
- 7 A person who provides this information; a referee. Ireland, UK, countable, uncountable
- 8 (computer science) the code that identifies where a piece of information is stored wordnet
- 9 A reference work. attributive, countable, often, uncountable
"reference grammar"
- 10 a book to which you can refer for authoritative facts wordnet
- 11 The act of referring: a submitting for information or decision. countable, uncountable
- 12 a formal recommendation by a former employer to a potential future employer describing the person's qualifications and dependability wordnet
- 13 A relation between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. countable, uncountable
- 14 a short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage wordnet
- 15 A short written identification of a previously published work which is used as a source for a text. countable, literary, uncountable
- 16 a remark that calls attention to something or someone wordnet
- 17 A previously published written work thus indicated; a source. countable, literary, uncountable
- 18 an indicator that orients you generally wordnet
- 19 An object containing information which refers to data stored elsewhere, as opposed to containing the data itself. countable, uncountable
- 20 a publication (or a passage from a publication) that is referred to wordnet
- 21 A special sequence used to represent complex characters in markup languages, such as ™ for the ™ symbol. countable, uncountable
- 22 Appeal. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"Y’are falne into a Princely hand, feare nothing, / Make your full reference freely to my Lord, / Who is ſo full of Grace, that it flowes ouer / On all that neede."
- 1 To provide a list of references for (a text).
"You must thoroughly reference your paper before submitting it."
- 2 refer to wordnet
- 3 To cite, to use as a reference.
"Reference the dictionary for word meanings."
- 4 To mention, to refer to. proscribed, sometimes
"In his speech, the candidate obliquely referenced the past failures of his opponent."
- 5 To contain the value that is a memory address of some value stored in memory.
"The given pointer will reference the actual generated data."
Example
More examples"With reference to your request, I will support."
Etymology
From Middle French référence, from Medieval Latin referentia, nominative neuter plural of referēns, present participle of referō (“return, reply”, literally “carry back”). Morphologically refer + -ence.
Related phrases
More for "reference"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.