MEANING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does meaning mean? 

• MEANING (noun)
  The noun MEANING has 2 senses:

1. the message that is intended or expressed or signified

2. the idea that is intended

  Familiarity information: MEANING used as a noun is rare.

• MEANING (adjective)
  The adjective MEANING has 1 sense:

1. rich in significance or implication

  Familiarity information: MEANING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MEANING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The message that is intended or expressed or signified

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

import; meaning; significance; signification

Context example:

the import of his announcement was ambiguous

Hypernyms ("meaning" is a kind of...):

content; message; subject matter; substance (what a communication that is about something is about)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "meaning"):

point (a brief version of the essential meaning of something)

overtone ((usually plural) an ulterior implicit meaning or quality)

nicety; nuance; refinement; shade; subtlety (a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude)

lesson; moral (the significance of a story or event)

intent; purport; spirit (the intended meaning of a communication)

burden; core; effect; essence; gist (the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work)

referent (something referred to; the object of a reference)

connotation; intension (what you must know in order to determine the reference of an expression)

sense; signified (the meaning of a word or expression; the way in which a word or expression or situation can be interpreted)

symbolisation; symbolization (the use of symbols to convey meaning)

grammatical meaning (the meaning of a word that depends on its role in a sentence; varies with inflectional form)

lexical meaning (the meaning of a content word that depends on the nonlinguistic concepts it is used to express)

Derivation:

mean (denote or connote)

mean (mean or intend to express or convey)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The idea that is intended

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

meaning; substance

Context example:

What is the meaning of this proverb?

Hypernyms ("meaning" is a kind of...):

idea; thought (the content of cognition; the main thing you are thinking about)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "meaning"):

implication; import; significance (a meaning that is not expressly stated but can be inferred)

strain; tenor (the general meaning or substance of an utterance)

undercurrent; undertone (a subdued emotional quality underlying an utterance; implicit meaning)

denotation; extension; reference (the most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression; the class of objects that an expression refers to)

reference (the relation between a word or phrase and the object or idea it refers to)

connotation (an idea that is implied or suggested)

semantics (the meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or text)

Derivation:

mean (denote or connote)

mean (mean or intend to express or convey)

• MEANING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Rich in significance or implication

Synonyms:

meaning; pregnant; significant

Context example:

a significant silence

Similar:

meaningful (having a meaning or purpose)

 Context examples 

She caught on to my meaning at once, and settled that matter in a word.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Had she doubted his meaning while she listened, the glow in his face, when she looked up at him, would have been decisive.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Concept is being phased out, but is still used with a reasonably clear meaning (example: Mesenchymoma). — 2004.

(Deprecated Concept, NCI Thesaurus)

Specifies the meaning (or semantics) of the relationship between one document version and another.

(Document Version Relationship, NCI Thesaurus)

“What is the meaning of this? I thought you and I were to dance together.”

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

An ability to understand the meaning or importance of something (or the knowledge acquired as a result).

(Comprehension, NCI Thesaurus)

A symbol or combination of symbols which is given an arbitrary meaning within a systematized collection of concepts used for data representation.

(Code, NCI Thesaurus)

The set of all possible Valid Value meanings of a Data Element Concept expressed without representation.

(Conceptual Domain, NCI Thesaurus)

Labels such as "natural" and "hypoallergenic" have no official meaning.

(Cosmetics, Food and Drug Administration)

It seemed strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since gives a meaning to it.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)