Word.ws English Dictionary

denotative

denotative adjective: that denotes or names; designative.

Adjective

denotative (comparative more denotative, superlative most denotative)

  1. That denotes or names; designative.
    • There was still no concept of language (arithmetical symbolism, perhaps, is not a language, is not denotative in the same sense as words).1989, Oliver Sacks, Seeing Voices: A Journey into the World of the Deaf
  2. Specific to the primary meaning of a term.
    Antonyms:
    connotative

Antonyms of denotative

Forms of denotative

comparativemore denotative
superlativemost denotative

Origin of denotative

From Latin dēnotātus + -ive. By surface analysis, denote + -ative.

Words formed from denotative

Questions about denotative

What does denotative mean?
Denotative means that denotes or names; designative.
What part of speech is denotative?
Denotative is an adjective.

Words near denotative in the dictionary

  1. denotation
  2. denotational
  3. denotational semantics
  4. denotationally
  5. denotations
  6. denotative
  7. denotatively
  8. denotativeness
  9. denotator
  10. denotators
  11. denotatory

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: denotative (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “denotative.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/denotative. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.