signifier

signify +‎ -er

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɡnɪfaɪɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɡnɪfaɪə/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sig‧ni‧fi‧er

signifier (plural signifiers)

1. Something or someone that signifies, makes something more significant or important.
   • 2008, Diane Rubenstein, This is Not a President: Sense, Nonsense, and the American Political Imaginary‎:

     If commentators have concurred on the characterization of Reagan as a synecdoche, they have also noted his status as a signifier.

   1. (cartomancy) A card representing a querent, question, or situation.
2. (linguistics) The sound of a spoken word or string of letters on a page that a person recognizes as a sign.
   • 2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections

     Here things are getting better and better for women and people of color, and gay men and lesbians, more and more integrated and open, and all you can think about is some stupid, lame problem with signifiers and signifieds.

• (cartomancy): significator

• signified
• referent

intension on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• nigrifies

From Middle French signifier, senefier, from Old French senefier, a semi-learned borrowing from Latin significō, from signum (“mark, sign, emblem”).

• IPA^(key): /si.ɲi.fje/, /si.ni.fje/

• audio

  (file)

signifier

1. (transitive) to signify, mean

   Synonyms: indiquer, vouloir dire

• signification
• significatif

• “signifier”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.