meaning
adjective
- having an intention/purpose (often specified with an adverbial expression)
- expressive/significant, conveying/expressing meaning/thought
noun
- concept that a word or symbol represents
- value, purpose, importance, point or significance of a thing
- nature of meaning in the philosophy of language
- what the source or sender expresses, communicates, or conveys in their message to the observer or receiver, and what the receiver infers from the current context
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈmiː.nɪŋ/ / /ˈmi.nɪŋ/ / [ˈmɪi.nɪŋ]
adj
Etymology: Etymology tree English mean English -ing English meaning From mean + -ing.
- 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.”
“There was a meaning pause, broken by old Stein again clapping his hands.”
noun
Etymology: 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”).
- 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."”
- The connotation associated with a word, expression, or symbol.
- The purpose, value, or significance (of something) beyond the fact of that thing's existence.
“the meaning of life”
“The number of persons attending the vigil had a lot of meaning to the families.”
- Intention.
“It was their meaning to take what they needed by strong hand.”
“[…] 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?”
verb
Etymology: Etymology tree English mean English -ing English meaning From mean + -ing.
- present participle and gerund of mean
“Chinghung, meaning “City of the Dawn” in the Tai language, the capital of the Hsishuangpanna Tai Autonomous Chou, lies in an agricultural area on the lower Lantsang.”
“Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.”