reference

reference (referanse): the relationship between a word and the world it is used to describe. The reference of a noun is the thing or group of things that the speaker has in mind when using the word. Reference can be specific (to a particular thing or group of things) or generic (to a whole class of things, without any particular example of it in mind). The lexical word classes have reference; nouns to things/persons/phenomena, verbs to processes/actions/situations, adjectives to qualities/properties, adverbs to qualities/properties, or to time/place/reason etc.