Definition of "reference" in Englisch

noun

1. (literary or archaic) A relationship or relation (to something).

2. A measurement one can compare (some other measurement) to.

3. Information about a person, provided by someone (a referee) with whom they are well acquainted.

4. (UK, Ireland) A person who provides this information; a referee.

5. (often attributive) A reference work.

   • reference grammar
   • Reference Dictionary of Linguistics

6. The act of referring: a submitting for information or decision.

7. (semantics) A relation between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object.

8. (academic writing) A short written identification of a previously published work which is used as a source for a text.

9. (academic writing) A previously published written work thus indicated; a source.

10. (computing) An object containing information which refers to data stored elsewhere, as opposed to containing the data itself.

11. (programming, character entity) A special sequence used to represent complex characters in markup languages, such as ™ for the ™ symbol.

12. (obsolete) Appeal.

verb

1. To provide a list of references for (a text).

   • You must thoroughly reference your paper before submitting it.

2. (occasionally proscribed) To cite, to use as a reference.

   • Reference the dictionary for word meanings.

3. (sometimes proscribed) To mention, to refer to.

   • In his speech, the candidate obliquely referenced the past failures of his opponent.

4. (programming) To contain the value that is a memory address of some value stored in memory.

   • The given pointer will reference the actual generated data.