Definition of "denotation" [de•no•ta•tion]

• The act of denoting; indication. (noun)
• Something, such as a sign or symbol, that denotes. (noun)
• Something signified or referred to; a particular meaning of a symbol. (noun)
• The most specific or direct meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "To say that name has no denotation is like saying, in 1970, that “The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” has no denotation because the entities in question are not genuinely soviet, are not genuinely socialist and are not genuinely republics."
• "Where’s your evidence? there’s a great percentage of impoverished suburbs in France than in the US, but the denotation is the same."
• "Designation or denotation, which is the relation of a proposition to an external state of affairs (theory of reference, with its criterion of truth or falsity)."