— semanticist /si man"teuh sist/ , semantician /see'man tish"euhn/ , n.
/si man"tiks/ , n. ( used with a sing. v. )
1. Ling.
a. the study of meaning.
b. the study of linguistic development by classifying and examining changes in meaning and form.
2. Also called significs . the branch of semiotics dealing with the relations between signs and what they denote.
3. the meaning, or an interpretation of the meaning, of a word, sign, sentence, etc.: Let's not argue about semantics.
4. See general semantics .
[ 1895-1900; see SEMANTIC, -ICS ]