signifier

1. 1.

   the phonological or orthographic sound or appearance of a word that can be used to describe or identify something

   “the inflected forms of a word can be represented by a stem and a list of inflections to be attached”

   Synonymsformword formdescriptor

   Broaderword

   Narrowerpluralsingularghost wordrootetymoncitation formabbreviationacronym

   linguistics

Other forms of signifier

plural

signifiers·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about signifier

What does signifier mean?

signifier means "the phonological or orthographic sound or appearance of a word that can be used to describe or identify something".

How many syllables are in signifier?

signifier has 3 syllables: sig-ni-fier. The stress falls on "sig".

What is another word for signifier?

Close synonyms include form, word form, descriptor. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is signifier a common word?

signifier is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.