referent (redirected from referents)

ref·er·ent  (rfr-nt, r-fûrnt)

n.

A person or thing to which a linguistic expression refers.

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referent [ˈrɛfərənt]

n

the object or idea to which a word or phrase refers Compare sense [13]

[from Latin referens, from referre to refer]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	referent - something referred to; the object of a reference meaning, signification, import, significance - 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 ambiguous" antecedent - the referent of an anaphor; a phrase or clause that is referred to by an anaphoric pronoun denotatum - an actual object referred to by a linguistic expression designatum - something (whether existing or not) that is referred to by a linguistic expression
	2.	referent - the first term in a proposition; the term to which other terms relate term - one of the substantive phrases in a logical proposition; "the major term of a syllogism must occur twice"
	3.	referent - something that refers; a term that refers to another term term - a word or expression used for some particular thing; "he learned many medical terms"
Adj.	1.	referent - having reference; "judgments referent to the indictment" denotative, denotive - having the power of explicitly denoting or designating or naming