signifiedsignifier
The term signifiedsignifier refers to a pair of concepts crucial to semiotics, the study of signs and symbols. This pairing was popularized by Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist and semiotician. The signified is the concept or idea that a sign represents. It is the mental image or meaning we associate with a word or image. The signifier is the physical form of the sign, the sound pattern of a spoken word, the written word, or the image itself. Together, the signified and signifier form a linguistic sign, which is the fundamental unit of meaning in Saussure's theory.
For example, in the word "tree," the signifier is the spoken sound "tree" or the written letters