Meaning Meaning
/ˈmiː.nɪŋ/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe denotation, referent, or idea connected with a word, expression, or symbol.
nounThe connotation associated with a word, expression, or symbol.
Sentence Examples
You are still asking yourself what the meaning of life is?
Can you make out the meaning easily?
What's the meaning of this word?
Synonyms & Antonyms
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ of the strange symbol was unknown to the archaeologists studying it.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Dictionaries often provide several different ____ for a single word, depending on the context.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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.""
— 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
"It was their meaning to take what they needed by strong hand."
— c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War:
"[…] 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?"
— 1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House:
"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."
— 1964, Jen Yu-ti [任育地], “The Southwest Region”, in 中国地理概述 [A Concise Geography of China], Peking: Foreign Languages Press, →OCLC, page 181:
"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."
— 2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ of the strange symbol was unknown to the archaeologists studying it.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Dictionaries often provide several different ____ for a single word, depending on the context.