ˌkänəˈtāshən, -nōˈt- noun
( -s )
Etymology: Medieval Latin connotation-, connotatio, from connotatus (past participle of connotare to connote) + -ion-, -io -ion
1.
a. : the conveying or suggesting a meaning by a word along with or apart from the thing it explicitly names or describes
the value of connotation in poetry
it was quite wrong to call it mind, the connotation was false — Willa Cather
— compare denotation 2
b. : something implied or suggested by a word or sometimes by a thing : implication
using a literary language in which the connotations of words tend to overwhelm their precise significance — Walter Lippmann
stayed in one place long enough for it to assume familiar connotations — Norman Mailer
2. : the meaning of a word (as a word representing an emotion, a feeling, quality, a moral idea) : signification
that abuse of logic which consists in moving counters about as if they were known entities with a fixed connotation — W.R.Inge
3. : the property or group of properties connoted by a term in logic and signified by or comprised in a concept or essential to the thing named : comprehension , signification — contrasted with denotation
• con·no·ta·tion·al | ̷ ̷ ̷ ̷| ̷ ̷shən ə l, -shnəl adjective