Word.ws English Dictionary

use-mention distinction

use-mention distinction noun: the distinction between the use of a word for its meaning (as in cheese is derived from milk) and the mention of a word as a lexical unit (as in cheese is derived from a word in Old English); an instance of this distinction.

Noun

use-mention distinction (usually uncountable, plural use-mention distinctions)

  1. (usually) The distinction between the use of a word for its meaning (as in cheese is derived from milk) and the mention of a word as a lexical unit (as in cheese is derived from a word in Old English); an instance of this distinction.
    • Thus, they purport to expand the domain of our judgments beyond all bounds of experience through concepts to which no corresponding object at all can be given in experience. For convenience, we ignore use-mention distinctions here and elsewhere.2014, Thomas D. Sullivan, Russell Pannier -, Modern Challenges to Past Philosophy: Arguments and Responses, →ISBN

Synonyms of use-mention distinction

Forms of use-mention distinction

pluraluse-mention distinctions

Questions about use-mention distinction

What does use-mention distinction mean?
Use-mention distinction means the distinction between the use of a word for its meaning (as in cheese is derived from milk) and the mention of a word as a lexical unit (as in cheese is derived from a word in Old English); an instance of this distinction.
What part of speech is use-mention distinction?
Use-mention distinction is a noun.
What is the plural of use-mention distinction?
The plural of use-mention distinction is use-mention distinctions.

Words near use-mention distinction in the dictionary

  1. use your words
  2. use-by date
  3. use-by dates
  4. use-case
  5. use-cases
  6. use-mention distinction
  7. use-mention distinctions
  8. use-value
  9. use-values
  10. use-wear analysis
  11. useability

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: use-mention distinction (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.

Last updated:

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