Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the quality of connoting; implying an attribute while denoting a subject: applied to any term which connotates or connotes anything, In whatever sense those verbs may be used.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Implying something additional; illative.
  • adjective (Log.) Implying an attribute. See Connote.
  • adjective one which denotes a subject and implies an attribute.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective That implies or suggests something else.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having the power of implying or suggesting something in addition to what is explicit

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word connotative.

Examples

  • The label connotative is inserted to indicate those words and meanings that come from a source other than the name in the headword but are nonetheless closely associated with it.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VIII No 2 1981

  • Instead I found an illtempered, confused set of generalizations about what analytical philosophers believe about history, distortion and misrepresentation of my views, and a peroration on the "wholly denotative" language of science and the "connotative" language of history that should win Hexter some kind of prize for philosophical incompetence.

    Letting Go White, Morton 1967

  • Even more generously, he helps me (and with a helper like White I need no hinderers) to say what he wants me to mean by "connotative," but what I did not say and did not mean when I used the term.

    Letting Go White, Morton 1967

  • If Hexter were more philosophically literate than he appears to be, he might say that when he uses the word "connotative" he has in mind what some philosophers mean by the word "emotive."

    Letting Go White, Morton 1967

  • [Footnote: Originally 'connotative' was used in the same sense in which we have used 'attributive,' for a word which directly signifies the presence of an attribute and indirectly applies to a subject.

    Deductive Logic St. George William Joseph Stock

  • Personal names have both denotative and connotative functions — shorthand for a bundle of associations attached to a person.

    IPSC: trademark and the consumer Rebecca Tushnet 2009

  • Personal names have both denotative and connotative functions — shorthand for a bundle of associations attached to a person.

    Archive 2009-08-01 Rebecca Tushnet 2009

  • I would like to use the phrase "family values", but that term has become loaded with connotative political baggage. christoph says:

    A Different Extremism… On the Rise? « L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website 2010

  • I remember that 90s rule to create characters for Image Comics (from progressiveboink): 1 - take a pre-existing Marvel or DC Comics character that fat guys would like (The Punisher) 2 - change his name to couple a negatively connotative word (blood, die, death) with a second but completely unrelated negatively connotative word (shot, hard, blow) 3 - draw scribbles all over him

    Matthew Vaughn’s Next Film to be Adaptation of Bloodshot? | /Film 2010

  • I sometimes stood shoulder to shoulder with meaningful people I have referred to in my lifetime as "colored," then "negro," then "black," now "African-American" -- connotative acknowledgment in those words of the evolving social changes in our country, despite the occasional throwbacks.

    Lea Lane: On MLK's Birthday: Racism Now, Remembering Racism Then 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.