# denotation

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˌdiː.noʊˈteɪ.ʃən/

## Definitions
1. The act of denoting, or something (such as a symbol) that denotes
2. The primary, surface, literal, or explicit meaning of a signifier such as 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.
3. The intension and extension of a word
4. Something signified or referred to; a particular meaning of a symbol
5. Any mathematical object which describes the meanings of expressions from the languages, formalized in the theory of denotational semantics
6. 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.

## Etymology
From Late Latin dēnotātiō, from Latin dēnotāre (“to denote, mark out”) + -tiō (suffix forming nouns of action), from dē- (“completely”) + notāre (“to mark”); equivalent to denote + -ation.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/denotation