Meanings
- not comparableOf a word or phrase applied to a particular person, place, or thing and not to any other.
- not comparablehuman sciencesOf or relating to a referent.
Thus, the referential location of “town” in an utterance “Went to town”, is simply to be conceived as that location which might also be referred to by “there”, “the place we visited last Thursday”, “your birthplace”, etc.
2011, James Dickins, Extended Axiomatic Linguistics, Walter de Gruyter, page 108 - not comparableOf or relating to reference or allusion.
Above all, the referential approach has proved durable and especially flexible.
1990, Gerald Mead, “The Representation of Fictional Character”, in Style, volume 24, number 3, Penn State UP, →JSTOR, page 4411 more example
In the first place, it must be pointed out that the bond with the past is inferential rather than referential.
1991, David Herzberger, “Social Realism and the Contingencies of History in the Contemporary Spanish Novel”, in Hispanic Review, volume 59, number 2, U of Pennsylvania P, →JSTOR, page 161 - not comparableServing as a reference.
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivereferring or pointing to something
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Englishreference
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
- Englishreferential
Translations
Bulgarian справочен
- справочен (spravočen)serving as a reference
Finnish viitteellinen
- viitteellinenserving as a reference
Cite this entry
referential. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/referential
“referential.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/referential. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “referential,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/referential.
Source: referential on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.