Noun
1. a remark that calls attention to something or someone;
"she made frequent mention of her promotion""there was no mention of it""the speaker made several references to his wife"2. a short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage;
"the student's essay failed to list several important citations""the acknowledgments are usually printed at the front of a book""the article includes mention of similar clinical cases"3. an indicator that orients you generally;
"it is used as a reference for comparing the heating and the electrical energy involved"4. a book to which you can refer for authoritative facts;
"he contributed articles to the basic reference work on that topic"5. a formal recommendation by a former employer to a potential future employer describing the person's qualifications and dependability;
"requests for character references are all to often answered evasively"6. the most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression; the class of objects that an expression refers to;
"the extension of `satellite of Mars' is the set containing only Demos and Phobos"7. the act of referring or consulting;
"reference to an encyclopedia produced the answer"8. a publication (or a passage from a publication) that is referred to;
"he carried an armful of references back to his desk""he spent hours looking for the source of that quotation"9. the relation between a word or phrase and the object or idea it refers to;
"he argued that reference is a consequence of conditioned reflexes"