(Linguistics)the thing in the world that a word or phrase denotes or stands for (语言学)所指事物,所指对象 ‘the Morning Star ’and ‘the Evening Star ’have the same referent (the planet Venus). “晨星”和“昏星”指的是同一物(金星)。
语源
mid 19th cent.: from Latin referent- 'bringing back', from the verb referre (see refer)