English - Etymology
From to denote (from Middle French denoter, from Latin denotare "denote, mark out", itself from de- "completely" + notare "to mark") + -ation
English - Noun
denotation (plural denotations)
- The act of denoting, or something (such as a symbol) that denotes
- (logic, linguistics, semiotics) The primary, literal, or explicit meaning of a word, phrase, or symbol; that which a word denotes, as contrasted with its connotation; the aggregate or set of objects of which a word may be predicated.
- (philosophy, logic) The intension and extension of a word
- (semantics) Something signified or referred to; a particular meaning of a symbol
- (semiotics) The surface or literal meaning encoded to a signifier, and the definition most likely to appear in a dictionary
- (computer science) Any mathematical object which describes the meanings of expressions from the languages, formalized in the theory of denotational semantics
- (media-studies) A first level of analysis: what the audience can visually see on a page. Denotation often refers to something literal, and avoids being a metaphor.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
References
- Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, 1989