meaning
UK/ˈmiː.nɪŋ//ˈmi.nɪŋ/
meaning noun: the denotation, referent, or idea connected with a word, expression, or symbol. Also the present participle and gerund of mean.
Noun
meaning (countable and uncountable, plural meanings)
- The denotation, referent, or idea connected with a word, expression, or symbol.
- Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- value, acceptation, definition, parsing, sense
- The connotation associated with a word, expression, or symbol.
- Synonyms:
- value, significance, flavor, implication, import, insinuation, tone, purport
- The purpose, value, or significance (of something) beyond the fact of that thing's existence.
- Near-synonyms: meaningfulness, point, purpose, significance, use
- the meaning of life
- Synonyms:
- meaningfulness, point, purpose, significance, use
- Antonyms:
- meaninglessness, pointlessness, purposelessness, uselessness, randomness
- Intention.
- It was their meaning to take what they needed by strong hand.c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War
- […] there was nothing in the house, what there was, was broken, the last people must have lived like pigs, what could the meaning of the landlord be?1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House
Adjective
meaning (comparative more meaning, superlative most meaning)
- Having a (specified) intention.
- Well/ill meaning.
- Expressing some intention or significance; meaningful.
- I might, to-day, have been a better, and thus a happier man, had I less frequently rejected the counsels embodied in those meaning whispers which I then but too cordially hated and too bitterly despised.1839, Edgar Allan Poe, William Wilson
- There was a meaning pause, broken by old Stein again clapping his hands.1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 243
Also used as
meaning is also the present participle and gerund of mean.
meaning meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
meaning in Hindi
- symbolic value of something
- मतलब matlab, अर्थ arth, मअनी maanī
- significance of a thing, as "the meaning of life"
- अर्थ arth, मूल्य mūlya
- definition or connotation of a word
- मतलब matlab, अर्थ arth
meaning in Tamil
- symbolic value of something
- அர்த்தம் arttam, பொருள் poruḷ
- definition or connotation of a word
- பொருள் poruḷ, அர்த்தம் arttam
meaning in Marathi
- अर्थ
meaning in Urdu
- symbolic value of something
- مَعْنی ma'nī, مَعْنَیٰ ma'nā, مَطْلَب matlab, اَرْتھ arth
- definition or connotation of a word
- مَطْلَب matlab
More languagesFewer languages
- meaning in Bengali
- অর্থ ortho, মানে mane
- meaning in Telugu
- అర్థం, అర్ధం, అర్థము
- meaning in Malayalam
- അർത്ഥം aṟtthaṁ, സാരം sāraṁ
- meaning in Kannada
- ಅರ್ಥ, ಅರ್ಥವನ್ನು
- meaning in Punjabi
- ਅਰਥ, ਮਤਲਬ
- meaning in Gujarati
- અર્થ arth
- meaning in Sanskrit
- अर्थ artha
- meaning in Pashto
- معنى ma'nã, معنا ma'nã
- meaning in Tagalog
- kahulugan, ibig sabihin
- meaning in Arabic
- مَعْنًى maʕnan, الْمَعْنَى al-maʕnā
- meaning in Malay
- makna, erti, maksud
- meaning in Indonesian
- arti, makna, maksud
- meaning in Thai
- ความหมาย kwaam-mǎai, คำแปล kam-bplɛɛ
- meaning in Vietnamese
- nghĩa, ý nghĩa, ý vị
- meaning in Myanmar
- အဓိပ္ပါယ် a.dhippay
Examples of meaning in a sentence
- The number of persons attending the vigil had a lot of meaning to the families.
- [T]he new friends […] knew nothing and did not particularly care to hear about the beautiful mother with her long, meaning looks and liquid dresses and distant smile.1978, Jane Gardam, God on the Rocks, Abacus, published 2014, page 160:
Synonyms of meaning
Antonyms
Forms of meaning
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | meanings |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more meaning |
| superlative | most meaning |
Origin of meaning
From Middle English mening, menyng, equivalent to mean + -ing. Cognate with Scots mening (“intent, purpose, sense, meaning”), West Frisian miening (“opinion, mind”), Dutch mening (“view, opinion, judgement”), German Meinung (“opinion, view, mind, idea”), Danish and Swedish mening (“meaning, sense, sentence, opinion”), Icelandic meining (“meaning”).
From mean + -ing.
Words formed from meaning
- antimeaning
- double meaning
- foremeaning
- get the meaning
- loan meaning
- meaninged
- meaningful
- meaningless
- meaninglessly
- meaninglessness
- meaning of life
- meaning-text model
- meaning-text theory
- nonmeaning
- plain meaning rule
- self-referential meaning
- submeaning
- take the meaning
- undermeaning
- meaningly
- meaningness
- unmeaning
Phrases with meaning
Words that rhyme with meaning
Questions about meaning
- What does meaning mean?
- Meaning means the denotation, referent, or idea connected with a word, expression, or symbol.
- What is meaning in Hindi?
- Meaning in Hindi is मतलब (matlab), अर्थ (arth), मअनी (maanī). See Meaning meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use meaning in a sentence?
- The number of persons attending the vigil had a lot of meaning to the families.
- What part of speech is meaning?
- Meaning can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce meaning?
- Meaning is pronounced /ˈmiː.nɪŋ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of meaning?
- The plural of meaning is meanings.
Words near meaning in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: meaning (page history and authors); meaning (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); meaning (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); meaning (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); meaning (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-meaning.ogg.
Cite this entry: “meaning.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/meaning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.