Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The denotation, referent, or idea associated with a word or phrase.
- noun Something that is conveyed or intended, especially by language; sense or significance.
- noun An interpreted goal, intent, or end.
- noun A sense of importance or purpose.
- adjective Disposed or intended in a specified manner. Often used in combination.
- adjective Full of meaning; expressive.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Significant; expressing thought or purpose: as, a meaning look.
- noun That which exists in the mind, view, or contemplation as an aim or purpose; that which is meant or intended to be done; intent; purpose; aim; object.
- noun That which is intended to be or actually is expressed or indicated in any way; the sense or purport of anything, as a word or an allegory, a sign, symbol, act, event, etc.; signification; significance; import.
- noun Understanding; knowledge; remembrance.
- noun Synonyms Design.
- noun Sense, explanation, interpretation, purport, acceptation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun That which is meant or intended; intent; purpose; aim; object.
- noun That which is signified, whether by act lanquage; signification; sense; import.
- noun rare Sense; power of thinking.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Present participle of
mean . - noun The
symbolic value of something. - noun The
significance of a thing. - noun semantics The
objects orconcept that a word or phrasedenotes , or that which a sentence says. - noun obsolete
intention
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the message that is intended or expressed or signified
- noun the idea that is intended
- adjective rich in significance or implication
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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If by the _meaning_ of a general name are to be understood the things which it is the name of, no general name, except by accident, has a fixed meaning at all, or ever long retains the same meaning.
A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive John Stuart Mill 1839
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If by the _meaning_ of a general name are to be understood the things which it is the name of, no general name, except by accident, has a fixed meaning at all, or ever long retains the same meaning.
A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) John Stuart Mill 1839
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_meaning_, and we are aware how these meaning values shift with the stress and turns of thought, so that a given word has a greater or less weight in different sentences or even in different clauses of the same sentence.
A Study of Poetry Bliss Perry 1907
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This reply is problematical in that it implies that the multitude of native speakers of English who reject the logical positivists 'account of meaning somehow cannot see that that sentence is true in virtue of the meaning of the word ˜meaning™ ” which is no technical term but a word of ordinary English.)
Metaphysics van Inwagen, Peter 2007
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(_Surely there was mystic meaning in the name_ HELENA, _meaning which was fulfilled when she fled to Troy.
The Agamemnon of Aeschylus Translated into English Rhyming Verse with Explanatory Notes 525 BC-456 BC Aeschylus 1911
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She thought that she could see the dawning realization that she and George “were either the victims of the Americans, or of the Russians, or of both, or, at the most, ‘lampistes’—a term meaning literally railroad employees who swing lanterns when a train pulls out and, by extension, the lowest of the low, who are made to pay for the mistakes or misdeeds of their superiors.”
A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011
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She thought that she could see the dawning realization that she and George “were either the victims of the Americans, or of the Russians, or of both, or, at the most, ‘lampistes’—a term meaning literally railroad employees who swing lanterns when a train pulls out and, by extension, the lowest of the low, who are made to pay for the mistakes or misdeeds of their superiors.”
A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011
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Giri ninjo, my Japanese friends taught me when I first came to Japan, is a term meaning loyalty and humility.
Kickboxing Geishas Veronica Chambers 2007
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They note that the difference in meaning is often not great, but - ing emphasises the action or event in itself, while the infinitive places the emphasis more on the results of the action or event (p. 515).
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Native Americans' name for menhaden was "munnawhatteaug" -- a word meaning fertilizer, biologists say.
oroboros commented on the word meaning
Two experts, to explicate Meaning,
Penned a text called "The Meaning of Meaning",
But the world was perplexed,
So three experts penned next
"The Meaning of Meaning of Meaning"
--Douglas R. Hofstadter
March 23, 2007
uselessness commented on the word meaning
Dude. Is that poem supposed to mean anything?
March 24, 2007
oroboros commented on the word meaning
What it means is in yer eye, guy! See philosophy in the flesh
March 24, 2007