reference
     n 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" [syn: {mention}]
     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" [syn: {citation},
         {acknowledgment}, {credit}, {mention}, {quotation}]
     3: an indicator that orients you generally; "it is used as a
        reference for comparing the heating and the electrical
        energy involved" [syn: {reference point}, {point of
        reference}]
     4: a book to which you can refer for authoritative facts; "he
        contributed articles to the basic reference work on that
        topic" [syn: {reference book}, {reference work}, {book of
        facts}]
     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" [syn: {character}, {character
        reference}]
     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" [syn: {denotation}, {extension}]
     7: the act of referring or consulting; "reference to an
        encyclopedia produced the answer" [syn: {consultation}]
     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" [syn: {source}]
     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"
     v : refer to; "he referenced his colleagues' work" [syn: {cite}]
Source: WordNet® 2.0