Phrase guide
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
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.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
noun
A signifier, i.e. a linguistic sign, with no determinate content beyond itself, serving as a nodal point dominating and grounding the content of a chain of other signifiers.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: human-sciences, philosophy, sciences, social-science, sociology
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: empty signifier, floating signifier
Antonyms: none provided
History
Calque of French signifiant-maître as used by French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.
