Reference is a relation between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to refer to the second object. The second object – the one to which the first object refers – is called the referent of the first object.
The term reference is used in many spheres of human knowledge, adopting shades of meaning particular to the contexts in which it is used.
References can take on many forms, including: a thought, a sensory perception that is audible (onomatopoeia), visual (text), olfactory, or tactile, emotional state, relationship with other, spacetime coordinate, symbolic or alpha-numeric, a physical object or an energy projection; but, other concrete and abstract contexts exist as methods of defining references within the scope of the various fields that require an origin, point of departure, or an original form. This includes methods that intentionally hide the reference from some observers, as in cryptography.
The following sections give specific usages of reference in different subjects.
Read more about Reference: Etymology, Computer Science, Bibliographies, Library and Information Sciences, Encyclopedias & Books of Facts, Psychology, Economics and Business, Education, Law, Semantics, Mathematics, Engineering, Arts, Literature and Rhetoric
Other articles related to "reference, references":
... geometrical separation between it and the reference ellipsoid is called the geoidal undulation ... A reference ellipsoid, customarily chosen to be the same size (volume) as the geoid, is described by its semi-major axis (equatorial radius) a and flattening f ... The 1980 Geodetic Reference System (GRS 80) posited a 378. 137m semi-major axis and a 1/298.257 101 ... flattening ...
... The Encyclopedia of Public Health is a reference set of four volumes covering all aspects of public health for the lay reader ... CHOICE 2002 award for Outstanding Academic Reference Title and has been listed in the Booklist/Reference Book Bulletin Editor's Choice of Outstanding Reference titles ...
... Reference doses are chemical-specific, i.e ... the EPA determines a unique reference dose for every substance it evaluates ... Reference doses are specific to dietary exposure ...
... The literary reference not only demonstrates the character's knowledge of classic texts, but the poem's reference to the Pacific Ocean matches Mayhew's announcement that ... This is likely a reference to Marshall Swain and George Pappas, philosophers whose work focuses on themes explored in the movie, including the limitations of knowledge and nature of being ... Critics have suggested that the movie indirectly references the work of writers Dante Alighieri (through the use of Divine Comedy imagery) and Johann Wolfgang von ...
... alludes to "the story of Solomon's mammy", a reference to Bathsheba, who gave birth to Solomon after her lover David had her husband Uriah killed ... (which Audrey herself may have written), the reference foreshadows the love triangle which evolves among the three characters of Barton Fink ... Another Biblical reference comes when Barton flips to the front of the Bible in his desk drawer, and sees his own words transposed into the Book of Genesis ...
Famous quotes containing the word reference:
“I am more and more convinced that, with reference to any public question, it is more important to know what the country thinks of it than what the city thinks. The city does not think much.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A sign, or representamen, is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity. It addresses somebody, that is, creates in the mind of that person an equivalent sign, or perhaps a more developed sign. That sign which it creates I call the interpretant of the first sign. The sign stands for something, its object. It stands for that object, not in all respects, but in reference to a sort of idea, which I have sometimes called the ground of the representamen.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965)