différance

Différance is a term coined by French philosopher Jacques Derrida to describe a fundamental feature of meaning in language. The word combines difference and deferment (différer in French), and Derrida uses it to signal that meaning is never fixed or present in a word by itself. Rather, meaning arises through its differences from other signs and through the continual deferral of full, final signification.

In Derrida’s view, every sign stands in a network of other signs; its sense is produced by what it differs from and what it traces from other contexts. Because signs always refer to other signs and to absent contexts, there is no moment of pristine presence where a word meaningfully stands on its own. The idea of the trace—an imprint of the other signs within each sign—means that meanings are always contaminated, extended, and postponed.

Différance is central to Derrida’s critique of logocentrism and the metaphysics of presence, which sought stable, self-sufficient bases for meaning. By highlighting difference and deferral, différance reveals how language and thought depend on a continual play of differences rather than on any fixed essence. It underpins Derrida’s broader method of deconstruction, which examines how texts generate meaning through hierarchies, exclusions, and the instabilities of interpretation.

The concept has had broad influence across literary theory, philosophy, linguistics, and cultural studies, while it has also drawn substantial critique for what some see as obscurity or nihilism.