FromLate Latindēnotātiō, fromLatindēnotāre(“to denote, mark out”) +-tiō(suffix forming nouns of action), fromdē-(“completely”) +notāre(“to mark”); equivalent todenote +-ation.
- (US)IPA(key): /ˌdiː.noʊˈteɪ.ʃən/
- Hyphenation:de‧no‧ta‧tion
- Rhymes:-eɪʃən
denotation (countable anduncountable,pluraldenotations)
- The act ofdenoting, or something (such as asymbol) thatdenotes
- (logic, linguistics, semiotics) Theprimary,surface,literal, orexplicitmeaning of asignifier such as aword,phrase, orsymbol; that which a word denotes, as contrasted with itsconnotation; the aggregate or set of objects of which a word may be predicated.
Thedenotations 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.
2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, inEnglish World-Wide[1], page 6:Regardingdenotation, the terms were generally used to refer to a wide range of language contact varieties and features.
- (philosophy, logic) Theintension andextension of a word
- (semantics) Something signified or referred to; a particular meaning of asymbol
- (computer science) Any mathematical object which describes the meanings of expressions from the languages, formalized in the theory ofdenotational semantics
- (media studies) A first level ofanalysis: what the audience can visually see on a page. Denotation often refers to somethingliteral, and avoids being ametaphor.
primary or explicit meaning
something signified or referred to
FromLatindēnotātiō.
denotation c (singular definitedenotationen,plural indefinitedenotationer)
- (linguistics)denotation(the basic, neutral meaning of a word, independent of its nuances of meaning)
