Examples of referent in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The play, which is set around the turn of the 21st century, draws from the historical referent wherein the Sept. 11 hijackers all had been approved for visas at some point by consular officials who, in hindsight, clearly missed some things.
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Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 10 May 2024
There’s a sense of theater which the public lives off and needs to a certain extent, to have referents.
—Pablo Sandoval, Variety, 13 Dec. 2023
The question involves determining the referent of the pronoun or possessive adjective.
—IEEE Spectrum, 19 Jan. 2015
In a pronoun resolution problem, the examples are ones that involve common sense in order to disambiguate the referent of the pronoun.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 July 2016
Just to use a word is to acknowledge the absence of its referent, as though language itself makes loss our theme and medium.
—Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 21 June 2023
Its originators wanted to escape their subservience to real-world referents and let shape and color act as a language all their own, like musical notes.
—Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 5 May 2023
Academics and conceptual artists quivered with excitement after the news broke—referent, context, appropriation, etc.
—Hernan Diaz, Harper’s Magazine , 10 Feb. 2023
Like most graphical widgets, tabs are metaphors whose referent has been largely forgotten.
—Meghan O'Gieblyn, WIRED, 28 Mar. 2023
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 10 May 2024
There’s a sense of theater which the public lives off and needs to a certain extent, to have referents.
—Pablo Sandoval, Variety, 13 Dec. 2023
The question involves determining the referent of the pronoun or possessive adjective.
—IEEE Spectrum, 19 Jan. 2015
In a pronoun resolution problem, the examples are ones that involve common sense in order to disambiguate the referent of the pronoun.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 July 2016
Just to use a word is to acknowledge the absence of its referent, as though language itself makes loss our theme and medium.
—Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 21 June 2023
Its originators wanted to escape their subservience to real-world referents and let shape and color act as a language all their own, like musical notes.
—Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 5 May 2023
Academics and conceptual artists quivered with excitement after the news broke—referent, context, appropriation, etc.
—Hernan Diaz, Harper’s Magazine , 10 Feb. 2023
Like most graphical widgets, tabs are metaphors whose referent has been largely forgotten.
—Meghan O'Gieblyn, WIRED, 28 Mar. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'referent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Referent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/referent. Accessed 14 May. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
referent
noun
ref·er·ent
ˈref-(ə-)rənt 
: something that refers or is referred to
especially
: the thing a word represents
referent
adjective
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