what does connotation mean?

Question

my book said "connotation is the emotional response evoked by a word" , can someone give me a more human def. ?

Answer 1

define connotation and denotation
read sentence and determine if the wording is connotative or denotative

Connotation is the emotional and imaginative association surrounding a word. Denotation is the strict dictionary meaning of a word.


You may live in a house, but we live in a home.

If you were to look up the words house and home in a dictionary, you would find that both words have approximately the same meaning- "a dwelling place." However, the speaker in the sentence above suggests that home has an additional meaning. Aside from the strict dictionary definition, or denotation, many people associate such things as comfort, love, security, or privacy with a home but do not necessarily make the same associations with a house. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of a home? of a house? Why do you think that real-estate advertisers use the word home more frequently than house? The various feelings, images, and memories that surround a word make up its connotation. Although both house and home have the same denotation, or dictionary meaning, home also has many connotations.

Hope the last paragraph helps

Answer 2

It is the image that the word conjures up in your mind, as opposed to the dictionary definition of the word. ***** may mean a person of color, but it may conjure up in your mind a sense of degradation of a person for their color.

Answer 3

10 years ago. Bruh,,,