connotation

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin connotātiō, from connotō (“I mark in addition”), from Latin con- (“together, with”) + noto (“I note”); equivalent to connote +‎ -ation.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌkɑnəˈteɪʃən/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkɒnəˈteɪʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: con‧no‧ta‧tion

Noun

connotation (plural connotations)

1. (semantics) A meaning of a word or phrase that is suggested or implied, as opposed to a denotation, or literal meaning. A characteristic of words or phrases, or of the contexts that words and phrases are used in.

   The word "advisedly" has a connotation of "wisely", although it denotes merely "intentionally" and "deliberately."

   The word "happy" has a positive connotation, while "sad" has a negative connotation.

2. (logic) The attribute or aggregate of attributes connoted by a term, contrasted with denotation.

   The two expressions "the morning star" and "the evening star" have different connotations but the same denotation (i.e. the planet Venus).

Synonyms

• intension

Antonyms

• denotation

Related terms

• connotate
• connotative
• connote

Translations

suggested or implied meaning

• Arabic: دَلَالَة (ar) f (dalāla)
• Armenian: հարանշանակություն (haranšanakutʻyun), լրացուցիչ իմաստ (lracʻucʻičʻ imast)
• Asturian: connotación f
• Bulgarian: конотация (bg) (konotacija), допълнително значение (dopǎlnitelno značenie)
• Catalan: connotació (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 含義／含义 (zh) (hányì), 意蘊／意蕴 (zh) (yìyùn), 涵義／涵义 (zh) (hányì)

• Czech: konotace f
• Danish: konnotation (da) c, medbetydning c, bibetydning c
• Dutch: connotatie (nl) f, bijbetekenis (nl) f, bijklank (nl) m, associatie (nl) f, gevoelswaarde (nl) f
• Esperanto: kromsignifo
• Finnish: konnotaatio (fi)
• French: connotation (fr) f
• Galician: connotación (gl) f
• German: Konnotation (de), Nebenbedeutung (de), Beiklang (de), Beigeschmack (de)
• Greek: υποδήλωση (el) f (ypodílosi), συνεκδοχή (el) f (synekdochí)
• Hungarian: konnotáció (hu)
• Indonesian: konotasi (id)
• Irish: fochiall f
• Italian: connotazione (it) f
• Japanese: 含意 (ja) (がんい, gan'i)
• Kazakh: коннотация (konnotasiä)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 함축 (ko) (hamchuk)
• Malay: konotasi
• Maltese: konnotazzjoni f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: konnotasjon (no) m

  Nynorsk: konnotasjon m

• Occitan: connotacion f
• Polish: konotacja f, skojarzenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: conotação (pt) f
• Romanian: conotație (ro) f
• Russian: подте́кст (ru) m (podtékst), коннота́ция (ru) f (konnotácija), созначе́ние n (soznačénije)
• Serbo-Croatian: konotacija (sh) f
• Spanish: connotación (es) f
• Swedish: konnotation (sv), bibetydelse (sv) c, innebörd (sv) c
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: tâlî mânâ, yan anlam
• Ukrainian: конота́ція (uk) f (konotácija)
• Vietnamese: hàm ý (vi)

Further reading

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “connotation”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin connotātiōnem, from connotō (“to mark in addition”), from Latin con- (“together, with”) + notō (“to note”). By surface analysis, connoter +‎ -ation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.nɔ.ta.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

connotation f (plural connotations)

1. connotation

Further reading

• “connotation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.