signifier

sig·ni·fi·er  (sgn-fr)

n.

1. One that signifies.

2. Linguistics A linguistic unit or pattern, such as a succession of speech sounds, written symbols, or gestures, that conveys meaning; a linguistic sign. The signifier of the concept "tree" is, in English, the string of speech sounds (t), (r), and (); in German, (b), (ou), and (m).

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[Translation of French signifiant, present participle of signifier, to signify.]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

signifier - the phonological or orthographic sound or appearance of a word that can be used to describe or identify something; "the inflected forms of a word can be represented by a stem and a list of inflections to be attached" descriptor, form, word form linguistics - the scientific study of language word - a unit of language that native speakers can identify; "words are the blocks from which sentences are made"; "he hardly said ten words all morning" plural, plural form - the form of a word that is used to denote more than one singular, singular form - the form of a word that is used to denote a singleton ghost word - a word form that has entered the language through the perpetuation of an error root word, stem, root, theme, radical, base - (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed; "thematic vowels are part of the stem" etymon, root - a simple form inferred as the common basis from which related words in several languages can be derived by linguistic processes citation form, entry word, main entry word - the form of a word that heads a lexical entry and is alphabetized in a dictionary abbreviation - a shortened form of a word or phrase acronym - a word formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name