signifier

From signify +‎ -er.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɡnɪfaɪɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɡnɪfaɪə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sig‧ni‧fi‧er

signifier (plural signifiers)

1. Something or someone that signifies, makes something more significant or important.
   • 2008, Diane Rubenstein, This is Not a President: Sense, Nonsense, and the American Political Imaginary‎:

     If commentators have concurred on the characterization of Reagan as a synecdoche, they have also noted his status as a signifier.

   1. (cartomancy) A card representing a querent, question, or situation.
2. (linguistics, philosophy) A sign, such as a written or spoken word, which refers to some concept, object or person, the signified.
   • 2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections:

     Here things are getting better and better for women and people of color, and gay men and lesbians, more and more integrated and open, and all you can think about is some stupid, lame problem with signifiers and signifieds.

• (cartomancy): significator

• signified
• referent

intension on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• nigrifies

Inherited from Middle French signifier, senefier, from Old French senefier, a semi-learned borrowing from Latin significāre, from signum (“mark, sign, emblem”).

• IPA^(key): /si.ɲi.fje/, /si.ni.fje/

• Audio:

  (file)

signifier

1. (transitive) to signify, mean

   Synonyms: indiquer, vouloir dire

• → Romanian: semnifica
• → Vietnamese: xi nhê

• “signifier”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.