Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use reference in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Reference means a relationship or relation (to something). Example: “You must thoroughly reference your paper before submitting it.”

Examples of reference by meaning

nounA reference work.

  • Reference Dictionary of Linguistics

verbTo provide a list of references for (a text).

  • You must thoroughly reference your paper before submitting it.

verbTo cite, to use as a reference.

  • Reference the dictionary for word meanings.
  • Depositing it and being able to reference it centuries later is not common human experience.1994 September, Barry Chamish, quoting Louis Rossetto, “The End of the Book”, in The Atlantic
  • On the Florence Harding page, for instance, a researcher will be able to reference a book by Waarren Harding’s alleged mistress, Nan Britton, who claimed that she bore his daughter.1998 January 26, Donnie Radcliffe, “New Library Will Chronicle First Ladies”, in The Washington Post, page C1+

verbTo mention, to refer to.

  • In his speech, the candidate obliquely referenced the past failures of his opponent.
  • Humanities institutions specifically reference the work setting for illustrative applications of the unique and significant contributions of the Humanities.1988, Integrating the Humanities into Associate Degree Occupational Programs, American Association of Community Colleges, →ISBN, page 25
  • And I would simply reference those of you who are out there working.1991 January 19, Bobby Ray Inman, “A Nominee’s Withdrawal: Transcript of the Statement by Inman on His Decision to Withdraw”, in The New...

verbTo contain the value that is a memory address of some value stored in memory.

  • The given pointer will reference the actual generated data.

More sentences with reference

  • I googled him but there were no references to him on the Internet.From the entry google
  • Not all Trekkies go around speaking Klingon and making endless references to the original Star Trek series.From the entry trekkie
  • After removing the bench, we can use the mark left on the wall as a reference point.From the entry bench
  • Flight within clouds must be made by reference to your instruments.From the entry instrument
  • The spoonerism "Burly Chassis" is a punning reference to Shirley Bassey's voluptuous figure.From the entry punning
  • There are a decent number of references out there, if you can find them.From the entry decent
  • After the incident with the potato peeler, references to potatoes became an inside joke among the witnesses.From the entry inside joke
  • Anyone with an unsubverted or cleansed frame of reference likely couldn't bear seeing such mistreatment and violence.From the entry frame of reference
  • If you hire some no-name for the job, be sure to check references.From the entry no-name
  • Parenthetical referencing is a citation style which uses in-line citations enclosed within parentheses.From the entry in-line
  • The team arbitrarily chose that one operating frame of reference which we all use today.From the entry operating
  • His literariness helped him understand the obscure references in the book.From the entry literariness
  • His sureness was born of having looked it up in a reputable reference book.From the entry sureness
  • Even the most plugged-in politics enthusiasts had a hard time understanding his oblique references.From the entry plugged in
  • The sentence was unsupported by an inline citation or general bibliographic reference source notes.From the entry unsupported
  • Literature-based knowledge vendors often claim to lease various products, including algorithmically extracted facts, and human-curated literature references.From the entry curated
  • The Red Book is the standard reference book for those naming inorganic chemical compounds.From the entry reference book
  • I wanted to take out the encyclopedia, but the librarian said it was a reference book.From the entry reference book
  • The writing is good, but I had to mark you down for failing to cite references.From the entry mark down
  • The IDE driver is responsible for sending correct LBAs so as to reference the desired file.From the entry LBA
  • The professor’s lecture was full of arcane references.From the entry arcane
  • The excessive use of exclamation marks devalues their effect, but is typical of concise genres such as cartoons, not reference works!From the entry exclamation mark
  • Formal series are defined without any reference to convergence.From the entry formal
  • A speech impregnated with references to the Constitution.From the entry impregnate
  • Jones apud Smith means that the original source is Jones, but that the author is relying on Smith for that reference.From the entry apud
  • Their entire national telephone network is isochronous, with a clock distribution tree radiating from a single, protected cesium reference clock.From the entry isochronous
  • All my reference books are within arm's reach.From the entry arm's reach
  • You're witnessing a great reference work in the making.From the entry in the making
  • He received glowing references from his previous employers.From the entry glowing
  • In computer programming, the practice of using always references in place of copies of equal objects is known as interning.From the entry interning
  • Shakespeare's use of the word scut may be a sly reference to Mistress Ford's pudenda: see sense 3.From the entry scut

Meaning of reference

  1. noun A relationship or relation (to something).
  2. noun A measurement one can compare (some other measurement) to.
  3. noun Information about a person, provided by someone (a referee) with whom they are well acquainted.

Full definition of reference

Questions about reference in a sentence

How do you use reference in a sentence?
Reference is used as a noun and verb. For example: “You must thoroughly reference your paper before submitting it.”
What is a short sentence with reference?
“Reference Dictionary of Linguistics”
What does reference mean?
Reference means a relationship or relation (to something).

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: reference (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use reference in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/reference. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.