Which term means the literal meaning of a word?

Which term means the literal meaning of a word?

• A. Denotation
• B. Connotation
• C. Morpheme
• D. CVVC

Answer: (A)

Understanding denotation means focusing on the literal meaning a word points to—the actual object or idea it names, like what you’d find in a dictionary. This is the straightforward, dictionary sense of a word. For example, the denotation of “rose” is the flowering plant itself. Connotation, by contrast, involves the feelings, associations, or cultural ideas tied to a word, such as romance or beauty that people might associate with a rose. Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language, which isn’t about literal versus figurative meaning, and CVVC refers to a word’s phonetic pattern, not its meaning. So, the term that means the literal meaning of a word is denotation.

Understanding denotation means focusing on the literal meaning a word points to—the actual object or idea it names, like what you’d find in a dictionary. This is the straightforward, dictionary sense of a word. For example, the denotation of “rose” is the flowering plant itself. Connotation, by contrast, involves the feelings, associations, or cultural ideas tied to a word, such as romance or beauty that people might associate with a rose. Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language, which isn’t about literal versus figurative meaning, and CVVC refers to a word’s phonetic pattern, not its meaning. So, the term that means the literal meaning of a word is denotation.