The noun reference has 9 senses (first 7 from tagged texts)
1. (9) mention, reference -- (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")
2. (7) citation, cite, acknowledgment, credit, reference, mention, quotation -- (a short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage; "the student's essay failed to list several important citations"; "the acknowledgments are usually printed at the front of a book"; "the article includes mention of similar clinical cases")
3. (5) reference point, point of reference, reference -- (an indicator that orients you generally; "it is used as a reference for comparing the heating and the electrical energy involved")
4. (5) reference book, reference, reference work, book of facts -- (a book to which you can refer for authoritative facts; "he contributed articles to the basic reference work on that topic")
5. (4) character, reference, character reference -- (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")
6. (3) reference, denotation, extension -- (the most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression; the class of objects that an expression refers to; "the extension of `satellite of Mars' is the set containing only Demos and Phobos")
7. (2) reference, consultation -- (the act of referring or consulting; "reference to an encyclopedia produced the answer")
8. reference, source -- (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")
9. reference -- (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")
Overview of verb reference
The verb reference has 1 sense (no senses from tagged texts)