meaning
n. C / Un. what a word, action, or idea represents or expresses. It is the message you are supposed to understand from something.
n. the idea or concept that a word, expression, or sign represents. It can also refer to the broader purpose or significance of an action or text.
I do not know the meaning of this word.
The teacher asked the students to guess the meaning of the new vocabulary based on the surrounding sentences.
Philosophers have long debated whether the meaning of a text is determined by the author's original intent or by the reader's interpretation.
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”).
From mean + -ing.
Countable when referring to specific definitions of words; uncountable when referring to general significance or purpose.