SIGN

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SIGN. Something that conveys meaning, such as an object, token, mark, image, movement, gesture, sound, event, or pattern. Signs may be directly representational (as when a drawing of a hand points in the direction to be taken) or symbolic (as when a cross denotes Christianity and not the Crucifixion alone), but are often entirely arbitrary (such as letters standing for speech sounds, or in mathematics a plus sign and a minus sign). If one thing signifies another, it serves as a sign for it: for example, the symbol + signifying ‘plus’ in arithmetic. The act of signifying is signification, a term that is often used synonymously with ‘meaning’ and ‘sense’, and occurs in the discussions of students of semantics and semiotics. See LINGUISTIC SIGN, SEMANTICS, SEMIOTICS, SIGN LANGUAGE, SYMBOL.

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