réfères

Réfères is primarily a conjugated form of the French verb référer, appearing as the second-person singular present indicative: tu réfères. In standard usage it functions within a clause to indicate that someone is referring to or citing something. As a standalone lexical entry, réfères is not treated as a separate word with its own meaning outside of this grammatical form. For example: Tu réfères à ce document pour étayer ton argument.

Grammatical notes: Référer is a regular -er verb, and its present tense forms include je réfère, tu réfères, il réfère, nous référons, vous référez, ils réfèrent. The form réfères is thus one of several inflected forms rather than an independent term. The word is distinct from référé, which is a noun used in French law to denote a type of urgent court procedure (référés in plural), a different lexical item with a specialized meaning.

Etymology: Référer comes from the verb referre in Latin, via Old French, meaning to bring back or to report, and by extension to mention or cite something. The present-tense form réfères shares this origin as the second-person form of the verb.

Usage considerations: In most contemporary French writing, réfères is encountered within sentences and is not used as a separate noun. When capitalized as Réfères, it could be adopted as a proper noun in fiction, branding, or toponymy, but there is no widely attested place or organization by that name in standard reference works.

See also: référer, référence, référé, referential linguistics.