significatio

Significatio is a Latin noun meaning signification or meaning, derived from significare “to signify.” In classical and medieval philosophy, significatio referred to the content or sense of a sign—the meaning attached to a sign within a language or signaling system. Scholastic writers distinguished significatio from the signum (the sign itself) and from the res or concept denoted, using the term in grammar, logic, and philosophy of language to analyze how words or symbols relate to what they stand for.

In practice, significatio was used to discuss the relationship between signs and their meanings or references, including how terms convey concepts, ideas, or objects. The emphasis was often on the mental or communicative content associated with a sign, rather than on the external form of the sign alone.

Today, significatio is primarily of historical interest. In modern linguistics and semiotics, scholars more commonly employ terms such as denotation, sense, reference, or meaning to describe the content associated with signs. When the Latin term appears in older texts, it generally denotes the content that a sign signifies, not the physical sign itself, and its analysis is situated within broader discussions of sign systems and interpretation.

See also: sign, signification, semiosis, semiotics, denotation, reference, signifier, signified.