"reference" in the noun sense
1. mention, reference
a remark that calls attention to something or someone
"she made frequent mention of her promotion"
"there was no mention of it"
"the speaker made several references to his wife"
2. citation, cite, acknowledgment, credit, reference, mention, quotation
a short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage
"the student's essay failed to list several important citations"
"the acknowledgments are usually printed at the front of a book"
"the article includes mention of similar clinical cases"
3. reference point, point of reference, reference
an indicator that orients you generally
"it is used as a reference for comparing the heating and the electrical energy involved"
4. reference book, reference, reference work, book of facts
a book to which you can refer for authoritative facts
"he contributed articles to the basic reference work on that topic"
5. character, reference, character reference
a formal recommendation by a former employer to a potential future employer describing the person's qualifications and dependability
"requests for character references are all too often answered evasively"
6. reference, denotation, extension
the most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression the class of objects that an expression refers to
"the extension of `satellite of Mars' is the set containing only Demos and Phobos"
7. reference, consultation
the act of referring or consulting
"reference to an encyclopedia produced the answer"
8. reference, source
a publication (or a passage from a publication) that is referred to
"he carried an armful of references back to his desk"
"he spent hours looking for the source of that quotation"
9. address, computer address, reference
computer science) the code that identifies where a piece of information is stored
10. reference
the relation between a word or phrase and the object or idea it refers to
"he argued that reference is a consequence of conditioned reflexes"
"reference" in the verb sense
1. reference, cite
refer to
"he referenced his colleagues' work"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
Princeton University "About WordNet®."
WordNet®. Princeton University. 2010.
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