Section I. Nature of Ideas Communicated

#516. [Idea to be conveyed.] Meaning. [Thing signified.]—N. meaning; signification, significance; sense, expression; import, purport; force; drift, tenor, spirit, bearing, coloring; scope. [important part of the meaning] substance; gist, essence, marrow, spirit &c. 5. matter; subject, subject matter; argument, text, sum and substance. general meaning, broad meaning, substantial meaning, colloquial meaning, literal meaning, plain meaning, simple meaning, natural meaning, unstrained meaning, true &c. (exact) 494 meaning, honest &c. 543 meaning, prima facie &c. (manifest) 525 meaning; letter of the law. literally; after acceptation. synonym; implication, allusion &c. (latency) 526; suggestion &c. (information) 527; figure of speech &c. 521; acceptation &c. (interpretation) 522. V. mean, signify, express; import, purport; convey, imply, breathe, indicate, bespeak, bear a sense; tell of, speak of; touch on; point to, allude to; drive at; involve &c. (latency) 526; declare &c. (affirm) 535. understand by &c. (interpret) 522. Adj. meaning &c. v.; expressive, suggestive, allusive; significant, significative, significatory; pithy; full of meaning, pregnant with meaning. declaratory &c. 535; intelligible &c. 518; literal; synonymous; tantamount &c. (equivalent) 27; implied &c. (latent) 526; explicit &c. 525. Adv. to that effect; that is to say &c. (being interpreted) 522.

#517. [Absence of meaning.] Unmeaningness.—N. meaninglessness, unmeaningness &c. adj.; scrabble. empty sound, dead letter, vox et praeterea nihil; "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"; "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." nonsense, utter nonsense, gibberish; jargon, jabber, mere words, hocus-pocus, fustian, rant, bombast, balderdash, palaver, flummery, verbiage, babble, baverdage, baragouin, platitude, niaiserie; inanity; flap-doodle; rigmarole, rodomontade; truism; nugae canorae; twaddle, twattle, fudge, trash, garbage, humbug; poppy-cock [U.S.]; stuff, stuff and nonsense; bosh, rubbish, moonshine, wish-wash, fiddle-faddle; absurdity &c. 497; vagueness &c. (unintelligibility) 519. [routine or reflexive statements without substantive thought, esp. legal] boilerplate. V. mean nothing; be unmeaning &c. adj.; twaddle, quibble, scrabble. Adj. unmeaning; meaningless, senseless; nonsensical; void of sense &c. 516. inexpressive, unexpressive; vacant; not significant &c. 516; insignificant. trashy, washy, trumpery, trivial, fiddle-faddle, twaddling, quibbling. unmeant, not expressed; tacit &c. (latent) 526. inexpressible, undefinable, incommunicable.

#518. Intelligibility.—N. intelligibility; clearness, explicitness &c. adj.; lucidity, comprehensibility, perspicuity; legibility, plain speaking &c. (manifestation) 525; precision &c. 494; θωνᾶντα συνετοῖσι; a word to the wise. V. be intelligible &c. adj.; speak for itself, speak volumes; tell its own tale, lie on the surface. render intelligible &c. adj.; popularize, simplify, clear up; elucidate &c. (explain) 522. understand, comprehend, take, take in; catch, grasp, follow, collect, master, make out; see with half an eye, see daylight, see one's way; enter into the ideas of; come to an understanding. Adj. intelligible; clear, clear as day, clear as noonday; lucid; perspicuous, transpicuous; luminous, transparent. easily understood, easy to understand, for the million, intelligible to the meanest capacity, popularized. plain, distinct, explicit; positive; definite &c. (precise) 494. graphic; expressive &c. (meaning) 516; illustrative &c. (explanatory) 522. unambiguous, unequivocal, unmistakable &c. (manifest) 525; unconfused; legible, recognizable; obvious &c. 525. Adv. in plain terms, in plain words, in plain English. Phr. he that runs may read &c. (manifest) 525.

#519. Unintelligibility.—N. unintelligibility; incomprehensibility, imperspicuity; inconceivableness, vagueness &c. adj.; obscurity; ambiguity &c. 520; doubtful meaning; uncertainty &c. 475; perplexity &c. (confusion) 59; spinosity; obscurum per obscurius; mystification &c. (concealment) 528; latency &c. 526; transcendentalism. paradox, oxymoron; riddle, enigma, puzzle &c. (secret) 533; diagnus vindice nodus; sealed book; steganography, freemasonry. pons asinorum, asses' bridge; high Dutch, Greek, Hebrew; jargon &c. (unmeaning) 517. V. be unintelligible &c. adj.; require explanation &c. 522; have a doubtful meaning, pass comprehension. render unintelligible &c. adj.; conceal &c 528; darken &c. 421; confuse &c. (derange) 61; perplex &c. (bewilder) 475. not understand &c. 518; lose, lose the clue; miss; not know what to make of, be able to make nothing of, give it up; not be able to account for, not be able to make either head or tail of; be at sea &c. (uncertain) 475; wonder &c. 870; see through a glass darkly &c. (ignorance) 491. not understand one another; play at cross purposes &c. (misinterpret) 523. Adj. unintelligible, unaccountable, undecipherable, undiscoverable, unknowable, unfathomable; incognizable, inexplicable, inscrutable; inapprehensible, incomprehensible; insolvable, insoluble; impenetrable. illegible, as Greek to one, unexplained, paradoxical; enigmatic, enigmatical, puzzling (secret) 533; indecipherable. obscure, dark, muddy, clear as mud, seen through a mist, dim, nebulous, shrouded in mystery; opaque, dense; undiscernible &c. (invisible) 447; misty &c. (opaque) 426; hidden &c 528; latent &c 526. indefinite, garbled &c (indistinct) 447; perplexed &c. (confused) 59; undetermined, vague, loose, ambiguous; mysterious; mystic, mystical; acroamatic, acroamatical; metempirical; transcendental; occult, recondite, abstruse, crabbed. inconceivable, inconceptible; searchless; above comprehension, beyond comprehension, past comprehension; beyond one's depth; unconceived. inexpressible, undefinable, incommunicable. unpredictable, unforeseeable. Phr. it's Greek to me.

#520. [Having a double sense] Equivocalness.—N. equivocalness &c adj.; double meaning &c. 516; ambiguity, double entente, double entendre, pun, paragram, calembour, quibble, equivoque, anagram; conundrum &c (riddle) 533; play on words, word play &c. (wit) 842; homonym, homonymy; amphiboly, amphibology; ambilogy, ambiloquy|. Sphinx, Delphic oracle. equivocation &c. (duplicity) 544; white lie, mental reservation &c. (concealment) 528; paltering. V. be -equivocal &c. adj.; have two meanings &c. 516; equivocate &c. (alter) 544. Adj. equivocal, ambiguous, amphibolous, homonymous; double-tongued &c. (lying) 544; enigmatical, indeterminate. Phr. on the one hand, on the other hand.

#521. Metaphor.—N. figure of speech; facon de parler [French], way # of speaking, colloquialism. phrase &c. 566; figure, trope, metaphor, enallage, catachresis; metonymy, synecdoche[Semant]; autonomasia|!, irony, figurativeness &c. adj.; image, imagery; metalepsis, type, anagoge, simile, personification, prosopopoeia, allegory, apologue, parable, fable; allusion, adumbration; application. exaggeration, hyperbole &c. 549. association, association of ideas (analogy) 514a V. employ -metaphor &c. n.; personify, allegorize, adumbrate, shadow forth, apply, allude to. Adj. metaphorical, figurative, catachrestical, typical, tralatitious, parabolic, allegorical, allusive, anagogical; ironical; colloquial; tropical. Adv. so to speak, so to say, so to express oneself; as it were. Phr. mutato nomine de te fabula narratur [Horace].

#522. Interpretation.—N. interpretation, definition; explanation, explication; solution, answer; rationale; plain interpretation, simple interpretation, strict interpretation; meaning &c. 516. translation; rendering, rendition; redition; literal translation, free translation; key; secret; clew &c. (indication) 550; clavis, crib, pony, trot [U.S.]. exegesis; expounding, exposition; hermeneutics; comment, commentary; inference &c. (deduction) 480; illustration, exemplification; gloss, annotation, scholium, note; elucidation, dilucidation|; eclaircissement, mot d'enigme. [methods of interpreting - list] symptomatology, semiology, semeiology, semiotics; metoposcopy, physiognomy; paleography &c. (philology) 560; oneirology acception, acceptation, acceptance; light, reading, lection, construction, version. equivalent, equivalent meaning &c. 516; synonym; paraphrase, metaphrase; convertible terms, apposition; dictionary &c. 562; polyglot. V. interpret, explain, define, construe, translate, render; do into, turn into; transfuse the sense of. find out &c. 480a the meaning &c. 516 of; read; spell out, make out; decipher, unravel, disentangle; find the key of, enucleate, resolve, solve; read between the lines. account for; find the cause, tell the cause &c. 153 of; throw light upon, shed light upon, shed new light upon, shed fresh light upon; clear up, clarify, elucidate. illustrate, exemplify; unfold, expound, comment upon, annotate; popularize &c. (render intelligible) 518. take in a particular sense, understand in a particular sense, receive in a particular sense, accept in a particular sense; understand by, put a construction on, be given to understand. Adj. explanatory, expository; explicative, explicatory; exegetical; construable. polyglot; literal; paraphrastic, metaphrastic; consignificative, synonymous; equivalent &c. 27. Adv. in explanation &c. n.; that is to say, id est, videlicet, to wit, namely, in other words. literally, strictly speaking; in plain, in plainer terms, in plainer words, in plainer English; more simply.

#523. Misinterpretation.—N. misinterpretation, misapprehension, misunderstanding, misacceptation|, misconstruction, misapplication; catachresis; eisegesis; cross-reading, cross-purposes; mistake &c. 495. misrepresentation, perversion, exaggeration &c. 549; false coloring, false construction; abuse of terms; parody, travesty; falsification &c. (lying) 544. V. misinterpret, misapprehend, misunderstand, misconceive, misspell, mistranslate, misconstrue, misapply; mistake &c. 495. misrepresent, pervert; explain wrongly, misstate; garble &c. (falsify) 544; distort, detort|; travesty, play upon words; stretch the sense, strain the sense, stretch the meaning, strain the meaning, wrest the sense, wrest the meaning; explain away; put a bad construction on, put a false construction on; give a false coloring. be at cross purposes, play at cross purposes. Adj. misinterpreted &c. v.; untranslated, untranslatable.

#524. Interpreter.—N. interpreter; expositor, expounder, exponent, # explainer; demonstrator. scholiast, commentator, annotator; metaphrast, paraphrast; glossarist, prolocutor. spokesman, speaker, mouthpiece. dragoman, courier, valet de place, cicerone, showman; oneirocritic; (Edipus; oracle &c. 513)