referential

Of a word or phrase applied to a particular person, place, or thing and not to any other.

Adjective

  1. Of a word or phrase applied to a particular person, place, or thing and not to any other.
  2. Of 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”,...
  3. Of 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 441:
    • 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...
  4. Serving as a reference.

Origin

Etymology tree English reference Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisder. Old French -ialder. Middle English -ial English -ial English referential From reference + -ial.

Derived

autoreferential coreferential coreferentiality coreferentially interreferential irreferential metareferential multireferential nonreferential referential integrity referentialism referentialist referentiality referentially referential opacity referential transparency self-referential