Word.ws English Dictionary

referent

/ˈɹɛf(ə)ɹənt/US/ˈɹɛf(ə)ɹənt/

referent noun: the specific entity in the world that a word or phrase identifies or denotes: what it refers to.

Noun

referent (plural referents)

  1. The specific entity in the world that a word or phrase identifies or denotes: what it refers to.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:referent.
  2. That which is referenced.

Examples of referent in a sentence

  • For example, in They appear uneasy, the property of being uneasy is predicated of (the referent of) they, which is therefore the predicand.
  • The orientative case indicates that an entity or event is oriented towards or around the referent.
  • Pronouns, for instance, are structures that organise information about continuous referents.

All 10 example sentences with referent

Forms of referent

pluralreferents

Origin of referent

From refer + -ent.

Words formed from referent

Questions about referent

What does referent mean?
Referent means the specific entity in the world that a word or phrase identifies or denotes: what it refers to.
What part of speech is referent?
Referent is a noun.
How do you pronounce referent?
Referent is pronounced /ˈɹɛf(ə)ɹənt/ (UK).
What is the plural of referent?
The plural of referent is referents.

Words near referent in the dictionary

  1. referendaryship
  2. referendaryships
  3. referends
  4. referendum
  5. referendums
  6. referent
  7. referential
  8. referential integrity
  9. referential opacity
  10. referential transparency
  11. referentialism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: referent (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-referent.wav.

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