Glossary
denotation
Denotation is a word's plain, dictionary meaning — the sense the sentence is using when a word means nothing more than it says.
Denotation is a word's plain, dictionary meaning: what it names, with no feeling added. Reading it is the first move on any word-in-context item, because a sentence usually uses a word in an ordinary sense and the difficulty is choosing which one. A coat that sets dries stiff, a bone that sets is aligned, the sun that sets goes down — all three are denotations, and the sentence decides. The method is to put each candidate meaning back into the sentence and read it aloud; the meaning that leaves the sentence saying something sensible is the one the writer used. A wrong choice on these items is usually a real denotation that belongs to another context, which is why the answer cannot be found by knowing more definitions — it is found by reading the line. Denotation is also what makes its pair useful: a connotation is what is left when the plain meaning is swapped for a synonym that means the same and feels different.
Taught in
Related terms
- connotation — Connotation is the feeling a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning — why thrifty and stingy can describe the same habit and land differently.
- word meaning in context — Word meaning in context is the sense a word takes in the sentence in front of you — a real sense the word has, and often not its commonest one.
Source: The reading skills ATI names in its own Content Outline (R.2.1-R.2.4, under the Craft and structure sub-content area), plus the tone and passage-structure skills that sub-content area's published description names; each definition below is written for the Craft and Structure guide in this exam, in our own words, and explains the skill the way the guide teaches it. (ATI Content Outline read 2026-10-09; definitions written 2026-10-09)