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# referent

«referent» in Mova's school dictionary: **The real thing, person or idea that a word or phrase…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a referent, referents)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (language, formal) The real thing, person or idea that a word or phrase points to: in «the dog barked», the referent of «the dog» is the actual dog. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/referent/#m1)

2) The thing that a pronoun like «it» or «she» refers back to. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/referent/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In English and reading lessons, pupils find what «it», «they» or «this» refers to — that is the referent; mixing up referents makes sentences confusing. In maths word problems, finding the referent of «it» or «each» matters: «Tom has 3 bags; each has 5 apples» — «each» refers to the bags. Phrases: «the referent of», «unclear referent».

### examples

- In «Sam lost his hat», the referent of «his» is Sam. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/referent/#x1)
- Find the referent of «it» in the sentence. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/referent/#x2)
- The word «Paris» has a city as its referent. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/referent/#x3)
- An unclear referent makes a sentence confusing. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/referent/#x4)
- In «The cats ate their food», the referent of «their» is the cats. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/referent/#x5)
- Ask yourself: what is the referent of «they»? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/referent/#x6)

### note

Countable: referents. Specialist word (linguistics). Related: refer, reference. A pronoun usually refers to the nearest fitting noun before it, but not always — check meaning.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «referent» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/referent/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.