Definition of connotation in English:

connotation

noun

1An idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.
‘the word “discipline” has unhappy connotations of punishment and repression’
[mass noun] ‘the work functions both by analogy and by connotation’
- ‘Wouldn't you have to abandon any swear words with sexual connotations to maintain a consistent position?’
- ‘In spite of the negative connotations contained in the word there are good meanings that should be pondered.’
- ‘Certainly, there are marked, and perhaps primary, political connotations to such myths.’
- ‘But the connotations of the word in English are not completely absent from these images.’
- ‘Some of their words seemed to carry connotations that I was never able to recognize.’
- ‘The word carries connotations that we believe are out of keeping with our current knowledge about many kinds of kidney problems.’
- ‘Ostensibly neutral, each of these words has a positive connotation in the American political lexicon.’
- ‘The word is often used pejoratively and has similar negative connotations to the word ‘witch’ in medieval Europe.’
- ‘They claim that they are cleansing the word of its negative connotations so that racists can no longer use it to hurt blacks.’
- ‘Like his other performance work, the idea is elegantly simple and full of connotation.’
- ‘Our society often attaches a negative connotation to the word ‘game.’’
- ‘The word home, for instance, by denotation means only a place where one lives, but by connotation it suggests security, love, comfort, and family.’
- ‘The word carries serious negative connotations that stretch back to the days of colonial Africa.’
- ‘The author criticizes conservatives for attaching a negative connotation of the word ‘liberal’ which he says actually symbolizes progress.’
- ‘I use the word in its connotation of an unimpaired or uncorrupted state of affairs.’
- ‘Leaving aside the religious connotations of the word, an idol in the realm of pop culture is someone that people look up to and engage with.’
- ‘While these examples have obvious connotations, some words are ambiguous.’
- ‘Thus the word carries a connotation of some physical use of the property by the tenant for the purposes of his business.’
- ‘‘Dilettante’ is not a word with a positive connotation in most circles, whereas ‘purist’ is, I think.’
- ‘‘Sanctity’ is a word with a religious connotation; it means ‘holy or religiously sacred.’’
- ‘But, given the creative skills and imagination of our tinsel town copywriters, the word takes a different connotation altogether.’
overtone, undertone, undercurrent, implication, hidden meaning, secondary meaning, nuance, flavour, feeling, aura, atmosphere, colouring, smack, hint, vein, echo, vibrations, association, intimation, suggestion, suspicion, insinuation
undermeaning, subcurrent
View synonyms
1. 1.1Philosophy
  The abstract meaning or intension of a term, which forms a principle determining which objects or concepts it applies to.
  Often contrasted with denotation
  ‘The term is useful because it is free from some of the acquired connotations of some other terms used for the same or a similar phenomenon.’
  ‘Seemingly gender-neutral terms such as aggressive and professional have different connotations when applied to men and women.’
  ‘One connotation of the term is that the imbalance must be really serious or exceptional.’
  ‘Gone, too, were the essentially macho male connotations which had informed abstract expressionism, to be replaced by a new lyricism.’
  ‘Today the term rhetoric is generally used to refer only to the form of argumentation, often with the pejorative connotation that rhetoric is a means of obscuring the truth.’