reference

Meanings

Noun

• A relationship or relation (to something).
• A measurement one can compare to.
• Information about a person, provided by someone (a referee) with whom they are well acquainted.
• A person who provides this information; a referee.
• A reference work.
• That which serves as a reference work.
• The act of referring: a submitting for information or decision.
• A relation between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object.
• A short written identification of a previously published work which is used as a source for a text.
• A previously published written work thus indicated; a source.
• An object containing information which refers to data stored elsewhere, as opposed to containing the data itself.
• A special sequence used to represent complex characters in markup languages, such as ™ for the ™ symbol.
• Appeal.

Verb

• To provide a list of references for (a text).
• To refer to, to use as a reference.
• To mention, to cite.
• To contain the value that is a memory address of some value stored in memory.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• circular reference
• forward reference
• phantom reference
• soft reference
• strong reference
• weak reference

Origin

• From Middle French référence, from Medieval Latin referentia, nominative neuter plural of referēns, present participle of referō.
• Morphologically refer + -ence.