Referents

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Entities to which terms or symbols point or relate
2. Items or concepts that serve as a subject of discussion or instruction
3. The specific aspects of meaning associated with words or phrases in communication

Etymology: Referents are the things a word or phrase points to in the world, and the sense of the word itself is tied to a Latin verb. "Refer" comes from Latin "referre", meaning "to carry back" or "bring back", built from "re-" (back) and "ferre" (to carry). The "-ent" ending marks the agent: something that does the referring. So a referent is, literally, the thing that carries a word back to its object. The plural form "referents" is simply the plural of "referent," so the same history applies. The word's sense in linguistics and philosophy, where it names the thing a name or expression stands for, developed from this basic idea of pointing back to something outside the language. The phrase in the definition, "specific aspects of meaning," reads as a looser, more abstract use that builds on that core sense.

Synonyms: denotations, designations