meaning

English

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Pronunciation

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• Rhymes: -iːnɪŋ

Etymology 1

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”).

Noun

meaning (plural meanings)

1. The symbolic value of something.
2. The significance of a thing.

   the meaning of life

3. (semantics) The objects or concept that a word or phrase denotes, or that which a sentence says.
4. (obsolete) intention
   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir Walter Raleigh:

     It was their meaning to take what they needed by stronghand.

Synonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. Use the template {{sense|"gloss"}}, substituting a short version of the definition for "gloss".

• sense, definition, to mean something

Hyponyms

• proposition

Derived terms

Terms derived from meaning (noun)

antimeaning meaning of life

meaningful meaningless

meaninglessly meaninglessness

Translations

symbolic value of something

• Arabic: معنى (ar) (má3naa) m
• Armenian: իմաստ (hy) (imast)
• Bashkir: мәғәнә (mäğänä)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 意義 (cmn), 意义 (cmn) (yìyì), 含義 (cmn), 含义 (cmn) (hányì), 意思 (cmn) (yìsi), 意味 (cmn) (yìwèi)

• Danish: betydning (da) c, mening (da) c
• Dutch: waarde (nl) f, betekenis (nl) m
• Finnish: merkitys (fi)
• French: signification (fr) f, sens (fr) m
• German: Bedeutung (de) f
• Hawaiian: manaʻo
• Hindi: मतलब (hi) (matlab) m, अर्थ (hi) (arth) m
• Hungarian: jelentés (hu)
• Italian: significato (it) m
• Japanese: 意義 (ja) (いぎ, igi), 意味 (ja) (いみ, imi)
• Korean: 뜻 (tteut), 의미 (意味, uimi)

• Latvian: jēga (lv) f
• Macedonian: значење (mk) (znáčenje) n
• Persian: معنی (fa) (ma'ni)
• Polish: znaczenie (pl)
• Portuguese: significado (pt) m
• Russian: значение (ru) (značénije) n
• Slovene: pomen (sl) m
• Swahili: maana (sw)
• Swedish: mening (sv) c, betydelse (sv) c
• Tajik: маънӣ (tg) (maʾnī)
• Thai: ความหมาย (th) (kwaammăai)
• Turkish: anlam (tr), mana (tr), kasıt (tr)
• Urdu: معنی (ur) (ma'nī) f, ارتھ (ur) (arth) m
• Vietnamese: nghĩa (vi)
• Welsh: ystyr (cy) m and f

significance of a thing, as "the meaning of life"

• Armenian: իմաստ (hy) (imast)
• Bashkir: мәғәнә (mäğänä)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 意義 (cmn), 意义 (cmn) (yìyì), 含義 (cmn), 含义 (cmn) (hányì), 意思 (cmn) (yìsi), 意味 (cmn) (yìwèi), 目的 (cmn) (mùdì)

• Danish: mening (da) c
• Dutch: zin (nl) m
• Esperanto: signifo (eo)
• Finnish: tarkoitus (fi)
• German: Sinn (de) m
• Greek: νόημα (el) (nóima) n
• Hungarian: értelem (hu)
• Italian: significato (it) m
• Japanese: 意義 (ja) (いぎ, igi), 意味 (ja) (いみ, imi), 目的 (ja) (もくてき, mokuteki)

• Korean: 의미 (意味, uimi)
• Latvian: jēga (lv) f
• Macedonian: смисла (mk) (smísla) f, смисол (mk) (smísol) m
• Norwegian: mening (no) m
• Polish: sens (pl) m
• Portuguese: significado (pt) m, sentido (pt) m
• Russian: смысл (ru) (smysl) m
• Scottish Gaelic: seagh (gd) m, brìgh (gd) f
• Slovene: smisel (sl) m
• Swahili: maana (sw)
• Swedish: mening (sv) c
• Turkish: anlam (tr)
• Welsh: ystyr (cy) m and f

definition or connotation of a word

• Arabic: معنى (ar) (má3naa) m
• Armenian: իմաստ (hy) (imast)
• Bashkir: мәғәнә (mäğänä)
• Breton: ster (br) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 意思 (cmn) (yìsi), 意味 (cmn) (yìwèi)

• Czech: význam (cs) m, smysl (cs) m
• Danish: betydning (da) c
• Dutch: betekenis (nl) m
• Finnish: merkitys (fi)
• French: sens (fr) m
• German: Bedeutung (de) f
• Greek: σημασία (el) (simasía) f, έννοια (el) (énnoia) f
• Hungarian: jelentés (hu)
• Icelandic: meining (is) f, merking (is)
• Italian: significato (it) m
• Japanese: 意味 (ja) (いみ, imi)

• Korean: 뜻 (ko) (tteut), 의미 (ko) (uimi) (意味 (ko))
• Lithuanian: reikšmė (lt)
• Macedonian: значење (mk) (znáčenje) n, смисла (mk) (smísla) f, смисол (mk) (smísol) m
• Norwegian: betydning (no) m, tyding (no)
• Persian: معنی (fa)
• Polish: znaczenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: significado (pt) m
• Russian: значение (ru) (značénije) n, толкование (ru) (tolkovánije) n, смысл (ru) (smysl) m
• Scottish Gaelic: ciallachadh (gd) m, seagh (gd) m, brìgh (gd) f
• Slovene: pomen (sl) m
• Spanish: significado (es) m
• Swahili: maana (sw)
• Swedish: betydelse (sv) c
• Welsh: ystyr (cy) m and f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Arabic: معنى (má3naa)
• French: signification f
• Friulian: significât m
• German: Bedeutung f
• Hebrew: משמעות (masham'ut) f
• Icelandic: meining f
• Indonesian: arti
• Italian: significato m
• Kurdish: مه‌عنا, مه‌به‌س
• Portuguese: significado m, sentido m
• Romanian: înțeles n, sens n, semnificație f
• Spanish: significado m
• Telugu: అర్థం (arthaM)

Etymology 2

From mean.

Verb

meaning

1. Present participle of mean.

Anagrams

• amening