reference
n 1: a remark that calls attention to something or someone; "she
made frequent mention of her promotion"; "there was no
mention of it"; "the speaker made several references to
his wife" [syn: {mention}]
2: a short note acknowledging a source of information or
quoting a passage; "the student's essay failed to list
several important citations"; "the article includes
mention of similar clinical cases" [syn: {citation}, {credit},
{mention}, {quotation}]
3: an indicator that orients you generally; "it is used as a
reference for comparing the heating and the electrical
energy involved" [syn: {reference point}, {point of
reference}]
4: a book to which you can refer for authoritative facts; "he
contributed articles to the basic reference work on that
topic" [syn: {reference book}, {reference work}, {book of
facts}]
5: a formal recommendation by a former employer to a potential
future employer describing the person's qualifications and
dependability; "requests for character references are all
to often answered evasively" [syn: {character}, {character
reference}]
6: the class of objects that an expression refers to; "the
extension of `satellite of Mars' is the set containing
only Demos and Phobos" [syn: {denotation}, {extension}]
7: the act of referring; "reference to an encyclopedia produced
the answer" [syn: {consultation}]
8: a publication (or a passage from a publication) that is
referred to; "he carried an armful of references back to
his desk"; "he spent hours looking for the source of that
quotation" [syn: {source}]
9: the relation between a word or phrase and the object or idea
it refers to; "he argued that reference is a consequence
of conditioned reflexes"
v : refer to [syn: {cite}]