Division II.—Communication of Ideas
Section I.—Nature of Ideas Communicated
- Idea to be conveyed.
- Absence of meaning.
- Intelligibility (Substantives), clearness, lucidity, perspicacity, explicitness, distinctness, plain speaking, expressiveness, legibility, visibility 446.
Meaning (Substantives), signification, sense, import, purport, significance, drift, gist, acceptation, acceptance, bearing, interpretation 522, reading, tenor, allusion, spirit, colouring, expression.
Literal meaning, literality, obvious meaning, grammatical sense, first blush, prima facie meaning; after- acceptation.
Equivalent meaning, synonym, synonymity.
Thing signified: matter, substance, pith, marrow, argument, text.
(Verbs). To mean, signify, express, import, purport, convey, breathe, imply, bespeak, bear a sense, involve, declare 527, insinuate, allude to, point to, drive at; to come to the point, give vent to; to stand for.
To take, understand, receive, or accept in a particular sense.
(Adjectives). Meaning, etc., significant, significative, significatory, pithy, pointed, epigrammatic, telling, striking, full of meaning, pregnant with meaning.
Synonymous, equivalent, tantamount; the same thing as.
(Epithets). Plain, simple, natural, prima facie, obvious, explicit, precise, downright, definite, distinct, defined, literal, ostensible, overt, broad, naked, unstrained, undisguised, positive, formal, honest, emphatic, bona fide, true.
Implied, tacit, understood, implicit, inferred, latent.
(Adverbs). Literally, etc., videlicet 522.
(Phrases). Au Pied de la lettre; so to speak; so to express oneself; as it were; that is to say; façon de parler.
Unmeaningness (Substantives), empty sound, a dead letter, inexpressiveness, vagueness 519.
Nonsense, gibberish, rubbish, rot, see Absurdity 497, empty babble, empty sound, verbiage, nugœ, truism.
(Verbs). To mean nothing, to be unmeaning, etc.
(Adjectives). Unmeaning, void of meaning, of sense, etc., senseless, not significant, undefined, tacit, not expressed.
Inexpressible, indefinable, undefinable, unmeant, unconceived.
(Phrases). Vox et prœterea nihil; "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"; "sounding brass and tinkling cymbal."
(Adverb). Tacitly.