Standard Lemma guide

connotation

noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˌkɒnəˈteɪʃən/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American, dialectal: /ˌkɑnəˈteɪʃən/ of Canada
  • Canada, dialectal: /ˌkɒnəˈteɪʃən/ of the US
  • Australian: /ˌkɔnəˈtæɪʃən/
  • New-Zealand: /ˌkɒnəˈtæɪʃən/
  • rhymes with -eɪʃən
  • CMU ARPABET: K AA2 N AH0 T EY1 SH AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

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.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences, semantics

Examples

  • 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.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The attribute or aggregate of attributes connoted by a term, contrasted with denotation.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, logic, mathematics, philosophy, sciences

Examples

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

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

an idea that is implied or suggested

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: meaning, substance

4

noun

Meaning 4

what you must know in order to determine the reference of an expression

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: intension

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: meaning, significance, signification, import

History

Etymology

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

Across languages

Translations

60 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: دَلَالَة (dalāla) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Armenian: հարանշանակություն (haranšanakutʻyun) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Armenian: լրացուցիչ իմաստ (lracʻucʻičʻ imast) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Asturian: connotación — suggested or implied meaning
  • Bulgarian: конотация (konotacija) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Bulgarian: допълнително значение (dopǎlnitelno značenie) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Catalan: connotació — suggested or implied meaning
  • Chinese Mandarin: 含義 /含义 (hányì) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Chinese Mandarin: 意蘊 /意蕴 (yìyùn) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Chinese Mandarin: 涵義 /涵义 (hányì) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Czech: konotace — suggested or implied meaning
  • Danish: konnotation — suggested or implied meaning
  • Danish: medbetydning — suggested or implied meaning
  • Danish: bibetydning — suggested or implied meaning
  • Dutch: connotatie — suggested or implied meaning
  • Dutch: bijbetekenis — suggested or implied meaning
  • Dutch: bijklank — suggested or implied meaning
  • Dutch: associatie — suggested or implied meaning
  • Dutch: gevoelswaarde — suggested or implied meaning
  • Esperanto: kromsignifo — suggested or implied meaning
  • Finnish: konnotaatio — suggested or implied meaning
  • Finnish: sivumerkitys — suggested or implied meaning
  • Finnish: oheismerkitys — suggested or implied meaning
  • French: connotation — suggested or implied meaning
  • Galician: connotación — suggested or implied meaning
  • German: Konnotation — suggested or implied meaning
  • German: Nebenbedeutung — suggested or implied meaning
  • German: Beiklang — suggested or implied meaning
  • German: Beigeschmack — suggested or implied meaning
  • Greek: υποδήλωση (ypodílosi) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Greek: συνεκδοχή (synekdochí) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Hungarian: konnotáció — suggested or implied meaning
  • Indonesian: konotasi — suggested or implied meaning
  • Irish: fochiall — suggested or implied meaning
  • Italian: connotazione — suggested or implied meaning
  • Japanese: 含意 (gan'i) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Kazakh: коннотация (konnotasiä) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Korean: 함축 (hamchuk) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Lithuanian: konotacija — suggested or implied meaning
  • Malay: konotasi — suggested or implied meaning
  • Maltese: konnotazzjoni — suggested or implied meaning
  • Norwegian Bokmål: konnotasjon — suggested or implied meaning
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: konnotasjon — suggested or implied meaning
  • Occitan: connotacion — suggested or implied meaning
  • Polish: konotacja — suggested or implied meaning
  • Polish: skojarzenie — suggested or implied meaning
  • Portuguese: conotação — suggested or implied meaning
  • Romanian: conotație — suggested or implied meaning
  • Russian: подте́кст (podtékst) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Russian: коннота́ция (konnotácija) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Russian: созначе́ние (soznačénije) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Serbo-Croatian: konotacija — suggested or implied meaning
  • Spanish: connotación — suggested or implied meaning
  • Swedish: konnotation — suggested or implied meaning
  • Swedish: bibetydelse — suggested or implied meaning
  • Swedish: innebörd — suggested or implied meaning
  • Turkish: tâlî mânâ — suggested or implied meaning
  • Turkish: yan anlam — suggested or implied meaning
  • Ukrainian: конота́ція (konotácija) — suggested or implied meaning
  • Vietnamese: hàm ý — suggested or implied meaning
Real reading context

connotation in complete knowledge articles