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For more information on meaning, visit Britannica.com.

noun

1. That which is signified by a word or expression: acceptation, connotation, denotation, import, intent, message, purport, sense, significance, significancy, signification, value. See meaning.
2. The thread or current of thought uniting or occurring in all the elements of a text or discourse: aim, burden², drift, intent, purport, substance, tendency, tenor, thrust. See meaning.
3. What one intends to do or achieve: aim, ambition, design, end, goal, intent, intention, mark, object, objective, point, purpose, target, view, why. Idioms: end in view, why and wherefore. See planned/unplanned, purpose/purposelessness.
4. The gist of a specific action or situation: idea, import, point, purport, significance, significancy. See meaning.

adjective

Effectively conveying meaning, feeling, or mood: eloquent, expressive, meaningful, significant. See express, show/hide.

Whatever it is that makes what would otherwise be mere sounds and inscriptions into instruments of communication and understanding. The philosophical problem is to demystify this power, and to relate it to what we know of ourselves and the world. Contributions to this study include the theory of speech acts, and the investigation of communication and the relationship between words and ideas, and words and the world. For particular problems see content, ideas, indeterminacy of translation, inscrutability of reference, language, predication, reference, rule-following, semantics, translation, and the topics referred to under headings associated with logic. The loss of confidence in determinate meaning (‘every decoding is another encoding’) is an element common both to postmodernist uncertainties in the theory of criticism, and to the analytic tradition that follows writers such as Quine.

Quotes:

"For a large class of cases -- though not for all -- in which we employ the word meaning it can be defined thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language." - Ludwig Wittgenstein

"All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation." - George Eliot

• Enlightenment, Truth, and the Unknowable - meaning: intent and significance of something; reason for being

Look up meaning in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Meaning may refer to:::

• Meaning (linguistics), meaning which is communicated through the use of language
• Meaning (non-linguistic), extra-linguistic meaning (intentional communication without the use of language), and natural meaning, where no intentions are involved at all
• Meaning (semiotics) has to do with the distribution of signs in sign relations
• Meaning as a relationship ontology and truth
• Meaning as a reference or equivalence
• Meaning (philosophy of language)
• Meaning (psychology)
• Meaning as values, a value system or as derived from value theory
• Meaning (existential), as it is understood in contemporary existentialism
• The meaning of life, a notion concerning the nature of human existence
• Meaning (House), an episode of the TV series House

See also

• Semantics for a general article on the study of meaning
• Hermeneutics
• Linguistics
• Logotherapy

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - betydning, betydningsindhold, mening
adj. - udtryksfuld, sigende, betydningsfuld

Nederlands (Dutch)
betekenis, bedoeling, veelbetekenend

Français (French)
n. - sens, signification, (Jur) termes (de la loi)
adj. - significatif

Deutsch (German)
n. - Bedeutung, Sinn
adj. - bedeutungsvoll

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - έννοια, νόημα, σημασία, σκοπός, λόγος
adj. - εκφραστικός, μεστός νοήματος

Italiano (Italian)
senso, significativo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - sentido (m), intenção (f)
adj. - intencional, significativo

Русский (Russian)
значение, многозначительный, существенный, имеющий намерение

Español (Spanish)
n. - intención, propósito, significado, acepción
adj. - significativo, lleno de intención

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - mening, innebörd, avsikt
adj. - menande

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
意思, 意义, 重要性, 含义, 意味深长的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 意思, 意義, 重要性, 含義
adj. - 意味深長的

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 뜻, 중요함
adj. - 의미가 있는, ~할 의도가 있는, 선의의

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 意味, 考え, 目的, 効力, 重要性
adj. - 意味深長な, 意味ありげな, …する考えの

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) معنى, مدلول, مغزى, قصد‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮משמעות, כוונה, מובן‬
adj. - ‮רב-הבעה, רב-משמעות‬

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