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Denotation Vs. Connotation: What’s the Difference?
Understanding these two words will make you a stronger writer
The difference between the words denotation and connotation might seem like the sort of thing you’d need to know only to win a trivia competition. However, difference between these two words holds up a mirror to the subtle complexities of the English language.
Denotation is a word’s dictionary definition, its explicit meaning. This is why you don’t hear denotation all that often: people take for granted that a word has a literal definition. Connotation, though, is a word’s acquired meaning, one that is often so subtle it doesn’t make it into the dictionary at all.
I like to call connotation “the reputation a word gets out in the world.”
For example: The dictionary definition of family is well known; it’s a group of people related by blood or marriage. Likewise the denotation of global: “worldwide; of or relating to a globe.”
However, if you’re looking through political leaflets, nobody needs to tell you that the group with Family in its name is politically conservative, and the one with Global is progressive. But these meanings can’t be found in most dictionaries. They are insinuated. They are connotations.
