What is 'meaning'? This question is not easy to answer. The linguistic science at present cannot give a definition of meaning which is conclusive.
However, we know for sure that the function of the word as a unit of communication is possible because it possesses a meaning. Therefore, among the word's various characteristics, meaning is the most important.
The linguistic discipline which specializes in the study of meaning is called semantics. As with many terms, the term "semantics" is ambiguous because it can stand for the expressive aspect of language in general and for the meaning of one particular word. Semantics has two branches: semasiology and onomasiology. The term semasiology is also ambiguous: in its general meaning it is synonymous to semantics and in its narrow meaning is contrasted to onomasiology, as semasiology? studies meaning of language units in the direction 'from name/sign to concept', while onomasiology studies in the direction 'from thing to name'.
Generally speaking,meaning can be described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated, in this way endowing the word with the ability of denoting real objects, qualities, actions and abstract notions. The complex and somewhat mysterious relationships between referent (object, thing, etc. denoted by the word), concept (thought, reference) and word (symbol, name, sign) are traditionally represented by the following triangle
Thought or Reference
Symbol or name Referent or object
The dotted line suggests that there is no immediate relation between word and referent: it is established only through concept.
The mechanism by which concepts (i.e. mental phenomena) are converted into words (i.e. linguistic phenomena) and the reverse process are not yet understood or described.