[kon-uh-tey-shuh
n] 
| 1. | an act or instance of connoting. |
| 2. | the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning: A possible connotation of “home” is “a place of warmth, comfort, and affection.” Compare denotation (def. 1). |
| 3. | Logic. the set of attributes constituting the meaning of a term and thus determining the range of objects to which that term may be applied; comprehension; intension. |
[kon-uh-tey-tiv, kuh-noh-tuh-] , con⋅no⋅tive, adjective | con·no·ta·tion (kŏn'ə-tā'shən) n.
|
The meaning that a word suggests or implies. A connotation includes the emotions or associations that surround a word. For example, the word modern strictly means “belonging to recent times,” but the word's connotations can include such notions as “new, up to date, experimental.”
connotation
in logic, correlative words that indicate the reference of a term or concept: "intension" indicates the internal content of a term or concept that constitutes its formal definition; and "extension" indicates its range of applicability by naming the particular objects that it denotes. For instance, the intension of "ship" as a substantive is "vehicle for conveyance on water," whereas its extension embraces such things as cargo ships, passenger ships, battleships, and sailing ships. The distinction between intension and extension is not the same as that between connotation and denotation.
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