Denotation Examples and Meaning

Denotation is the act of using a word or symbol to signify an explicit meaning or set of meanings. The particular meaning of a word or symbol is its denotation. Get a denotation definition along with several examples of denotation in literature, denotation symbols, and other fun denotations like zodiac signs.

Denotation: Literary Definition

The most common type of denotation that you’ll come across is in literature. Denotation means the literal definition of a word. To give an example, the denotation for blue is the color blue.

You mean the girl was quite literally the color blue.

You mean that the animal is literally a carnivorous domesticated animal with fur and a snout.

Denotation Examples

Still a bit confused? Look at these denotation sentence examples.

• The boy was pushy. (He was literally pushing people.)
• She was cold. (She was cold in temperature.)
• It was too hard. (The object was too firm.)
• The dog is a mutt. (The dog is a mix of several breeds.)
• Trevor is a bull. (The bull is named Trevor.)
• The woman was frugal. (The woman is economical when spending money.)
• He was bull-headed. (He literally has a head of a bull.)

When you take the literal meaning of a sentence, it can get pretty funny. For example, imagine if someone said,

He has a lot of dough.

As a denotation, it means they are up to their elbows in dough and ready for baking. Denotation can easily get confused with connotation. Therefore, it is important to look at connotation vs. denotation.

Denotation and Connotation

While denotation is the literal meaning of the word, connotation is a feeling or indirect meaning. For example:

• Denotation: blue (color blue)
• Connotation: blue (feeling sad)

Depending on whether you are using connotation or denotation, the sentence, “She was blue” could mean she was literally blue or she was sad. Here’s another example to really drive this home.

• Denotation: dog (animal)
• Connotation: dog (ugly)

Again the sentence, “You are a dog” could have two different meanings. You are saying they are an animal or ugly. Knowing whether a writer is using connotation or denotation depends on the text surrounding the passage. Let’s check out a few literary examples.

Denotation in Literature

From poets to novelists, denotation is used all over the literary world. Explore a few different examples.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth

In his passage, Wordsworth means actual flowers when he talks about “golden daffodils." Additionally, in the phrase “beside the lake, beneath the trees” the lake and trees are taken by their denotative meanings.

"When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

In this passage from To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus means courage in the literal sense. The author is using denotation to find courage as “strength or bravery in the face of adversity or pain."

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."