Find the word definition

Crossword clues for meaning

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
meaning
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
convey meaning
▪ Children sometimes find it easier to use pictures to convey meaning, rather than words.
double meaning
▪ A lot of the jokes were based on double meaning.
literal meaning/sense/interpretation etc
▪ A trade war is not a war in the literal sense.
the true meaning of sth
▪ The story teaches a lesson about the true meaning of friendship.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
different
▪ A day by the seaside has a different meaning on the breezy east coast.
▪ For example, the word infer seems to have different meanings for different speakers.
▪ In a neutral context like It's -, heavy has a different meaning.
▪ Second, the imagery suggests different meanings.
▪ Words can also have different meaning according to the context in which they are used.
▪ Then there is the fact that two phrases that sound exactly alike can have different meanings depending on their context.
▪ The two pictures are not, however, incompatible, they merely highlight different aspects of meaning.
▪ As symbols, they may have different meanings for different people in different situations.
double
▪ This gives a double meaning to Blanche's hatred of naked light.
▪ Old rivalries are barely submerged and every quip has a deadly double meaning.
▪ No, there was no double meaning in what he'd said.
▪ Sniggers and the double meanings surrounded the subject which was one of the biggest taboos in our society.
literal
▪ As Leon Brittan has pointed out, the phrase doesn't even carry the same literal meaning in every language.
▪ As I read, it seems to me that this is not his literal meaning.
▪ A text would entail its interpretation only if meaning was exhausted by sense, the coded or literal meanings studied by semantics.
▪ Therefore, on the literal meaning of the words used, the applicants must fail.
▪ Within the family it is usually the words and their literal meaning which take primary importance.
▪ The literal meaning is not conclusive: the ordinary reader knows all about irony.
new
▪ For Francisco Franco, the war now had a new meaning.
▪ More new meanings find expression this way than by almost any other process.
▪ A new meaning for vertical integration.
▪ Whether or not we will shortly have a passive computer lobby, it certainly gives a new meaning to the hacking cough.
▪ There seems to be no place in successful socialization for creative interaction that produces new meanings.
▪ Safety at sea takes on a new meaning when you sail with Navico.
▪ Whether new words and new meanings are accepted can depend to some extent on what means exist to disseminate them.
▪ So buy a daffodil ... and give a new meaning to flower power.
precise
▪ Use complex words only when you need a precise meaning and a simple word will not serve the purpose.
▪ Most of us maintain vague notions of justice, but its precise meaning escapes us until we are deprived of it.
▪ Words have areas of meaning rather than precise points of meaning. 6.
▪ That is, they have a fairly definite, precise meaning.
▪ The precise meaning attached to these terms has varied depending upon the setting in which they were used.
▪ T R S Allan suggests that political concepts should inform judicial decisions about the precise meaning of supremacy.
▪ Probability has a precise meaning here.
▪ It is a concept, an abstraction, a term with no single precise and agreed meaning.
real
▪ This is a generation for whom the war years remain vivid and the Empire had real meaning.
▪ Most job descriptions are bland, boring, totally devoid of colour and - worse still - frequently devoid of real meaning.
▪ I love you utterly and completely, and you give real meaning to life.
▪ They would know the real meaning of religious freedom, something which has never really existed throughout religious history.
▪ Now we know the real meaning of going weak at the knees.
▪ Until a child has achieved that understanding, a numeral is just a shape with no real meaning.
▪ Not only do both represent a constant danger to the community, but their lives have ceased to have any real meaning.
social
▪ As yet there has been little research considering early retirement among women and its social meaning and impact.
▪ I made some modest remarks about the social and political meanings encoded in works of art.
▪ Finally, one must be aware of yet another way in which social actions have meaning.
▪ The contact becomes an act only if in some way or another it can be provided with a social meaning.
▪ Initially, this may simply involve the elicitation of a sequence of sounds or actions which can be endowed with social meaning.
▪ We will be working with a simplified form of a total theory of social meaning.
▪ What social meanings, if any, can be detected in the synchronized clapping and threats aggression?
specific
▪ Contrast also grants priority to lexical expressions that conventionally convey a specific meaning.
▪ If it has a specific set of meanings, the semantic theory should specify them.
▪ Liberty for Hayek has a specific meaning.
▪ Furthermore, Ishmael is alive because he alone did not assign specific meanings to events.
▪ The name can convey a highly specific meaning or less than nothing, depending on your audience.
▪ All the descriptions used on Sainsbury's packs have specific meanings.
▪ Certainly not a routine interpretation of certain symbols attached to specific meanings.
▪ What specific meanings Dicey himself intended when writing the Law of the Constitution matters little.
symbolic
▪ The fact is simply that the two colours do not possess universal symbolic meanings shared by all the peoples of the globe.
▪ And yet, symbolic meanings do not derive only from cultures.
▪ All illnesses carry symbolic meanings as well as the purely physiological.
▪ In other words, a technological breakthrough supposedly ushered in new symbolic meanings.
▪ Comprehension in the sense of understanding sentences is then a semantic matter of deciphering symbolic meanings.
▪ A harmless pleasure can become the gateway to nameless hells when for whatever reasons it begins to carry a significant symbolic meaning.
▪ The attraction of shells has often been enhanced by attributing to them symbolic meanings suggested by more or less fanciful resemblances.
▪ The symbolic meaning of the clothes is the same for all Punjabis.
true
▪ The right legal answer, based on the true meaning of the Act, must be found and applied.
▪ A man needed special experience and insight to work true meanings out of certain murky remarks.
▪ Even so, those with grace always know how to be graceful and she would probably understand the true meaning of the gesture.
▪ It was too soon for anyone to understand the true meaning of what had happened.
▪ I still can't get a clear definition on the true meaning of it all.
▪ Given the dichotomous speech model that Richard uses, one need only invert the sense to discover the true meaning.
▪ She understood the true meaning of a phrase she had often heard but never defined: in her element.
■ NOUN
word
▪ A pronunciation is addressed either with or without the mediation of the semantic system - our store of word meanings.
▪ Vumba is a Shona word meaning mist.
▪ The automatic recognition of word meanings has been demonstrated in a number of experimental investigations.
▪ Knowledge of how word meanings combine at the sentence level can rule out grammatically correct, but semantically implausible sentences.
▪ The word meaning is to be taken seriously here.
▪ The chapter by Eve Clark focuses on young children's acquisition of word meanings.
▪ Masala is a generic word meaning mixed spices, and thus the most basic curry powder is a masala of a sort.
▪ In a semantic network, concepts, which refer to word meanings, are represented by nodes.
■ VERB
carry
▪ A difference in word form signals a difference in meaning, so two different forms can not carry the selfsame meaning.
▪ Many phrases that we feel could logically be broken up still carry hidden meanings that pass unnoticed until some one misuses them.
▪ Terms may overlap in meaning, but they may not carry identical meanings.
▪ Sometimes they carry unexpected meanings and then are called idioms.
▪ Words carry meanings, and so do combinations of words.
▪ Even the most unselfish people carry certain meanings in their eyes.
▪ As Leon Brittan has pointed out, the phrase doesn't even carry the same literal meaning in every language.
▪ A linguistic element carries meaning to the extent that it is selected.
change
▪ The alteration of stress on certain words can completely change the meaning of a phrase or sentence.
▪ That was their new job and the word changed its meaning to reflect that new reality.
▪ The effect has been so many priorities and urgent tasks to change the meaning and the effect of the concept.
▪ It changes their meaning, though - and very quickly.
▪ Though their scruples were overcome, their objection pointed to their awareness that the ceremony was changing its meaning.
▪ When we change the order in which things happen, it changes the meaning of the story.
▪ You can not interfere with a single word in Shakespeare or Milton without changing the meaning.
▪ Occasionally incorrect spelling can change the meaning of a sentence.
convey
▪ Nurses frequently have difficulty in conveying the exact meaning of messages to patients and relatives.
▪ The rest often consists of sentences to help convey the meaning of those key points and to make the language flow.
▪ Attainment target 3: A growing ability to construct and convey meaning in written language matching style to audience and purpose.
▪ Contrast also grants priority to lexical expressions that conventionally convey a specific meaning.
▪ Choice of words and their arrangement in sentences to convey exact meaning are therefore vital in the activity of communicating.
▪ They must faithfully convey the historian's meaning and still be memorable for you. 3.
▪ Even without verbal language, we can convey meaning.
▪ But it isin Between that the function of language to convey meaning is most actively questioned.
express
▪ Meaning lies in the mind, beyond words - just as one may search for a word to express one's meaning.
▪ The morpheme is the smallest unit of language that expresses meaning and is governed by the grammatical rules of the language.
▪ Rather, each conventional expression expresses a different meaning.
give
▪ These will be given the meaning they bear among lawyers.
▪ This would run counter to the very informal information exchange that gives it meaning in this internal context.
▪ Because of this, humans' actions are meaningful: they define situations and give meaning to their actions and those of others.
▪ Such elders may have given positive meaning to experiences of anxiety, poverty, chronic illness, multiple losses and death.
▪ They consider that you can only move on from an unhappy experience if you have given it some meaning.
▪ We cling to the symbols which give our life meaning and help us in answering this question.
▪ But without another job, a hobby or some activity that gives meaning to their lives there is danger.
interpret
▪ A good counsellor helps them to interpret the meaning behind the words each speaks.
▪ And they interpret that as meaning that whatever happens in the money market exporters should still retain some of their current advantage.
▪ Confusion between the sources of faunal diversity could easily lead to mistakes in interpreting its meaning.
▪ This could be interpreted as meaning that the Act applies to the activity duty.
lose
▪ The name was often given to women by eighteenth century writers, and may have lost its meaning.
▪ To lose these meanings would be death, to unleash them would overwhelm.
▪ But in that case his words lose their meaning and become empty.
▪ They become more and more frequent until they lose all meaning as acts of atonement and become simply acts of smoking.
understand
▪ The story has to be decoded in order to understand its meaning.
▪ Children understand your meaning by perceiving the tone of your voice.
▪ This tension between change and continuity is the key to understanding the inner meaning as opposed to the outward form of working-class sport.
▪ You will use your powers of anticipation and imagination to read between the lines, to understand message and meaning.
▪ You may still be a child but you are the only person in this dreadful place who understands the meaning of care.
▪ Even so, those with grace always know how to be graceful and she would probably understand the true meaning of the gesture.
▪ In short, although a wink is a movement of the eyelids, the movement is no help in understanding its meaning.
▪ The need to understand the meaning of behaviour also makes it difficult to predict how individuals will behave.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
bereft of hope/meaning/life etc
▪ How haggard and bereft of hope they looked!
▪ These women were old and toothless at a young age, their eyes bereft of hope.
shade of meaning/opinion/feeling etc
▪ As a solo instrument following a melodic line, the violin can convey every imaginable shade of feeling.
▪ From a sociologist's point of view, work has shades of meaning which are individual to each of us.
▪ In this more tolerant environment several newspapers representing different shades of opinion have already sprung up, especially in the urban areas.
▪ It represented all shades of opinion, but it was dominated by Sukarno.
▪ There was in most works an allowance for shades of feeling and meaning, and for the existence of doubt.
▪ These two directions or shades of opinion are not necessarily as starkly polarised as may appear.
▪ To teach me to perceive the shades of beauty and the shades of meaning ....
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The same symbol can have more than one meaning, depending on the context in which it is used.
▪ There is a chart that explains the meaning of all the symbols on the map.
▪ This word 'spring' has several different meanings.
▪ Was there a hidden meaning behind his words?
▪ We convey meaning not only by our words but also by our actions.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Children just beginning on their first language have to solve the problem of how forms map on to meanings.
▪ If action stems from subjective meanings, it follows that the sociologist must discover those meanings in order to understand action.
▪ Peter read the letter twice before its meaning sank in.
▪ So the notion that pragmatics might be the study of aspects of meaning not covered in semantics certainly has some cogency.
▪ The meaning of words changes every fifty years.
▪ There is a further meaning to be discovered in the shepherds.
▪ Words associated with women are sexualized so that apparently equivalent terms acquire very different meanings.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Meaning

Mean \Mean\ (m[=e]n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Meant (m[e^]nt); p. pr. & vb. n. Meaning.] [OE. menen, AS. m[=ae]nan to recite, tell, intend, wish; akin to OS. m[=e]nian to have in mind, mean, D. meenen, G. meinen, OHG. meinan, Icel. meina, Sw. mena, Dan. mene, and to E. mind. [root]104. See Mind, and cf. Moan.]

  1. To have in the mind, as a purpose, intention, etc.; to intend; to purpose; to design; as, what do you mean to do?

    What mean ye by this service ?
    --Ex. xii. 26.

    Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.
    --Gen. 1. 20.

    I am not a Spaniard To say that it is yours and not to mean it.
    --Longfellow.

  2. To signify; to indicate; to import; to denote.

    What mean these seven ewe lambs ?
    --Gen. xxi. 29.

    Go ye, and learn what that meaneth.
    --Matt. ix. 1

Meaning

Meaning \Mean"ing\, n.

  1. That which is meant or intended; intent; purpose; aim; object; as, a mischievous meaning was apparent.

    If there be any good meaning towards you.
    --Shak.

  2. That which is signified, whether by act lanquage; signification; sense; import; as, the meaning of a hint.

  3. Sense; power of thinking. [R.] [1913 Webster] -- Mean"ing*less, a. -- Mean"ing*ly, adv.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
meaning

"sense, import, intent," c.1300, from mean (v.).

Wiktionary
meaning

Etymology 1 n. 1 The symbolic value of something. 2 The significance of a thing. 3 (lb en semantics) The objects or concept that a word or phrase denotes, or that which a sentence says. 4 (lb en obsolete) intention. Etymology 2

  1. 1 Having a (specified) intention. 2 Expressing some intention or significance; meaningful. v

  2. (present participle of mean English)

WordNet
meaning

adj. rich in significance or implication; "a meaning look"; "pregnant with meaning" [syn: meaning(a), pregnant, significant]

meaning
  1. n. the message that is intended or expressed or signified; "what is the meaning of this sentence"; "the significance of a red traffic light"; "the signification of Chinese characters"; "the import of his announcement was ambigtuous" [syn: significance, signification, import]

  2. the idea that is intended; "What is the meaning of this proverb?" [syn: substance]

Wikipedia
Meaning

Meaning may refer to:

  • Meaning (existential), the worth of life in contemporary existentialism
  • Meaning (linguistics), meaning which is communicated through the use of language
  • Meaning (non-linguistic), a general term of art to capture senses of the word "meaning", independent from its linguistic uses
  • Meaning (philosophy of language), definition, elements, and types of meaning discussed in philosophy
  • Meaning (psychology), epistemological position, in psychology as well as philosophy, linguistics, semiotics and sociology
  • Meaning (semiotics), the distribution of signs in sign relations
  • The meaning of life, a notion concerning the nature of human existence
  • Meaning, a 1975 book by Michael Polanyi and Harry Prosch
  • The Meaning of Meaning, a 1923 book by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards
Meaning (linguistics)

In linguistics, meaning is what the source or sender expresses, communicates, or conveys in their message to the observer or receiver, and what the receiver infers from the current context.

Meaning (non-linguistic)

A non-linguistic meaning is an actual or possible derivation from sentence, which is not associated with signs that have any original or primary intent of communication. It is a general term of art used to capture a number of different senses of the word "meaning", independently from its linguistic uses.

Meaning (House)

Meaning is the first episode of the third season of House and the 47th episode overall. It aired on Fox on September 5, 2006.

Meaning (existential)

In existentialism, meaning is understood as the worth of life. Meaning in existentialism is descriptive; therefore it is unlike typical, prescriptive conceptions of "the meaning of life". Due to the methods of existentialism, prescriptive or declarative statements about meaning are unjustified. Meaning is something only for an individual, it has a home only in one person. The verb "to mean" implies something exists to be taken or learned from something else; and since subjects mean different things to every individual, meaning is purely subjective. Thus it is ' subjective' or should be understood to have an 'anti-system' or 'anti-answer' sensibility.

Meaning (philosophy of language)

The nature of meaning, its definition, elements, and types, was discussed by philosophers Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas. According to them "meaning is a relationship between two sorts of things: signs and the kinds of things they mean (intend, express or signify)". One term in the relationship of meaning necessarily causes something else to come to the mind. In other words: "a sign is defined as an entity that indicates another entity to some agent for some purpose". As Augustine states, a sign is “something that shows itself to the senses and something other than itself to the mind” (Signum est quod se ipsum sensui et praeter se aliquid animo ostendit; De dial., 1975, 86).

The types of meanings vary according to the types of the thing that is being represented. Namely:

  1. There are the things in the world, which might have meaning;
  2. There are things in the world that are also signs of other things in the world, and so, are always meaningful (i.e., natural signs of the physical world and ideas within the mind);
  3. There are things that are always necessarily meaningful, such as words, and other nonverbal symbols.

All subsequent inquiries emphasize some particular perspectives within the general AAA framework.

The major contemporary positions of meaning come under the following partial definitions of meaning:

  • Psychological theories, exhausted by notions of thought, intention, or understanding;
  • Logical theories, involving notions such as intension, cognitive content, or sense, along with extension, reference, or denotation;
  • Message, content, information, or communication;
  • Truth conditions;
  • Usage, and the instructions for usage; and
  • Measurement, computation, or operation.
Meaning (semiotics)

In semiotics, the meaning of a sign is its place in a sign relation, in other words, the set of roles that it occupies within a given sign relation. This statement holds whether sign is taken to mean a sign type or a sign token. Defined in these global terms, the meaning of a sign is not in general analyzable with full exactness into completely localized terms, but aspects of its meaning can be given approximate analyses, and special cases of sign relations frequently admit of more local analyses.

Two aspects of meaning that may be given approximate analyses are the connotative relation and the denotative relation. The connotative relation is the relation between signs and their interpretant signs. The denotative relation is the relation between signs and objects. An arbitrary association exists between the signified and the signifier. For example, a US salesperson doing business in Japan might interpret silence following an offer as rejection, while to Japanese negotiators silence means the offer is being considered. This difference in interpretations represents a difference in: semiotics

Meaning (psychology)

Meaning is a concept used in psychology as well as in other fields such as philosophy, linguistics, semiotics and sociology. These multidisciplinary uses of the term are not independent and can more or less overlap. Within each of these fields, there are different ways in which the term meaning is constructed and used; each construction can match related constructions in other fields. At the deepest level, each construction is associated with an epistemological position. The concept of "meaning" is thus used differently in different epistemological traditions in each field. The logical positivists, for example, associated meaning with scientific verification. The meaning of meaning is therefore understood differently in different schools of psychology (as well as in different schools overall).

Usage examples of "meaning".

Glutamic acid, without which ammonia accumulates in the brain and kills, dribbled along the floor while they glared, and D-ribose, and D-2-deoxyribose, adenine, guanine, uracil, cytosine, thymine and 5-methyl cytosine without which no thing higher than a trilobite can pass on its shape and meaning to its next generation.

A linking verb, one that expresses a state of being, always requires an adjective to complete its meaning, while an active verb does not.

The language was unfamiliar, yet so liquid, so graceful in the ear that it seemed Alec could almost grasp it-and that if he did it would reveal a depth of meaning his own language could never achieve.

The sitting room fire had been banked, however, meaning the master of the house was not coming down again before morning- Alec took a lightstone on a handle from his tool roll and shielded it with one hand as he crept to the door leading to the shop.

Petersburg as to the meaning of that invasion, and it received the answer that Russia felt compelled to come to the rescue of the Ameer at his request, for the Afghan ruler was anxious for his independence, in view of the measures which were taken by England.

But when a bunch of men take an' lock you up four years, it ought to have some meaning.

Since the anagogical or mystical reading, however, must refer to what is neither past nor future but transcendent of time and eternal, neither in this place nor in that, but everywhere, in all, now and forever, the fourth level of meaning would seem to be that in death -- or in this world of death -- is eternal life.

Fritsche in the same year by the distillation of indigo with caustic potash developed a product which he also called aniline, the name being derived from the Portuguese word anil, meaning indigo.

But that will be merely a skeleton that will require many layers of annotation to give it meaning.

The pneumatic sense, which is the only meaning borne by many passages, an assertion which neither Philo nor Clement ventured to make in plain terms, has with Origen a negatively apologetic and a positively didactic aim.

The negotiations also stated that in all these strategic military actions the frontier lines drawn at the Second Viennese Arbitrage did not have to be taken into consideration, meaning that the Hungarian Army units could take up defense positions anywhere in the southern Carpathians.

Corporations, especially those operating internationally and therefore subject to the complications of international law, sign contracts in which they agree that any dispute over the meaning of the contract will be arbitrated by the AAA.

At the time ofBauzee or Condillac, the relation between roots, with their great lability of form, and the meaning patterned out of representations, or again, the link between the power to designate and the power to articulate, was assured by the sovereignty of the Name.

But, on the other hand, the complete network of signs is linked together and articulated according to patterns proper to meaning.

The last fact shows clearly that the higher powers of the mind can attain a high development on the basis of tactual and manipulatory abilities, and that these abilities can serve as the basis of a system of symbols of meanings hardly, if at all, less rich than is commonly developed from the basis of visual, auditory, and articulatory abilities.