reference

英['ref(ə)r(ə)ns] 美['rɛfrəns]

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"

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"

3. an indicator that orients you generally;

"it is used as a reference for comparing the heating and the electrical energy involved"

4. a book to which you can refer for authoritative facts;

"he contributed articles to the basic reference work on that topic"

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"

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"

7. the act of referring or consulting;

"reference to an encyclopedia produced the answer"

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"

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"