The Meaning of Connotative: What It Is and How To Use It

Connotative is a word that you may see often used in literature and poetry. This article will teach you about the meaning of connotative.

Your writing, at its best

Compose bold, clear, mistake-free, writing with Grammarly's AI-powered writing assistant

What is the meaning of the word connotative, and how is a word’s connotation different from its denotation? This article will cover the meaning of the word connotative, example sentences that contain the word connotative, translations, and synonyms and antonyms. 

Keep reading to learn all about the denotative meaning of connotative!

What Does the Word Connotative Mean?

According to Collins English Dictionary, connotative is an adjective that refers to the associative meaning of a word or phrase. The emotional associations of a word are called its connotation, while a word’s denotation refers to its literal or explicit meaning. The types of connotative meanings include a positive connotation, negative connotation, or neutral connotation. 

Connotative meanings of words can be different from denotative meanings of words. A connotative meaning of a word implies an emotion or association, whereas a denotative meaning is simply the facts. The best words in creative writing create a high-potency connotation. 

Let’s look at an example: A word that has a positive connotation is sunny or bright, and a word that has a negative connotation is blinding or glaring. All of these words have a similar denotative or literal meaning. 

Similarly, the connotation of the word gloomy is negative, while the connotation of the word gray is neutral.

How Can Connotative Be Used in a Sentence?

Learning to use the word connotative in a sentence is one of the most practical ways to memorize its definition. By looking at the below example sentences with the word connotative, you can get a sense of how to use it in your daily life. 

After reading these examples of connotative, see if you can come up with your own!

The Hollywood agency employee was confused by the connotation of the words in his feedback. The recent examples of his work seemed to be praised, but his overall evaluation was marked “needs improvement.”

The poets chose words due to their positive connotative meanings, but the grammarians focused on the dictionary definition of the vocabulary and were confused.

The learner enjoyed logic and had trouble grasping the concept of the secondary meaning of a connotative word. He preferred technical terms and general terms without associations that were up for interpretation.

April taught her students about the connotative and allusive meaning in Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays like Romeo & Juliet. She then gave examples of how connotation, metaphor, and other figurative language are used in the real world by different people.

The waitress covered the connotative and attitudinal meaning of her jab with politeness, and the customers could not even tell that she was annoyed.

The woman questioned the connotation of the man she was meeting with — everything he said implied a sexual undertone, but he assured her that he meant nothing by it. She believed him until she discovered a community of other women online who felt the same way.

What Are Translations of Connotative?

Languages around the world have their own translations of the word connotative. Read through this list of translations of connotative from Nice Translator

After learning about the translations of connotative, you will be able to communicate with people who don’t speak English about connotations. 

  • Hungarian: mellékértelmet magába foglaló
  • Indonesian: konotatif
  • Malay: konotatif
  • Amharic: ማንነት
  • Portuguese (Portugal): conotativo
  • Telugu: సంక్షిప్తత
  • Greek: σημαίνων επαγωγικώς
  • Basque: konnotative
  • Korean: 함축성 있는
  • Turkish: bağlayıcı
  • Hebrew: contotative
  • French: connotif
  • Vietnamese: ý nghĩa
  • Tamil: முரண்பாடு
  • Swedish: konnotativ
  • Slovak: obozretný
  • Dutch: connotatief
  • Ukrainian: коннотативний
  • Bulgarian: конотатив
  • Gujarati: અર્થપૂર્ણ
  • German: konnotativ
  • Croatian: konotiran
  • Chinese (PRC): 内涵
  • Serbian: конотативан
  • Portuguese (Brazil): conotativo
  • Japanese: 含意
  • Bengali: সংজ্ঞাবহ
  • Finnish: koitteleva
  • Latvian: konotējošs līdzeklis
  • Arabic: دلالة
  • Russian: коннотативный
  • Lithuanian: konotaciškai
  • Hindi: संक्रामक
  • Marathi: अर्थपूर्ण
  • Catalan: conno
  • Welsh: ceinusol
  • Malayalam: കോട്ടോട്ടേറ്റീവ്
  • Spanish: connotativo
  • Urdu: متضاد
  • Italian: connotativo
  • Chinese (Taiwan): 內涵
  • Thai: ซึ่งพูดคุย
  • Kannada: ಸಮಾಧಾನಕರ
  • Norwegian: connotativ
  • Slovenian: konotativno
  • Estonian: konnotatiivne
  • Polish: konotatywny
  • Romanian: conotativă
  • Czech: konotativní

What Are Synonyms of the Word Connotative?

There are many words that have the same denotative meaning as connotative, which are called synonyms. Interestingly, synonyms often have different connotative meanings than their base words. This is not always the case, but it may be one of a few reasons why a person would choose to use a synonym of connotative.

  • allegorical
  • allusive
  • characteristic
  • connotational
  • connotative of
  • demonstrative
  • denotative
  • designative
  • diagnostic
  • emblematic
  • evidential
  • evocative
  • evocatory
  • exhibitive
  • exhibitory
  • expressive
  • figurative
  • hinting
  • implicative
  • impressionistic
  • indicative
  • indicatory
  • inferential
  • intensional
  • meaning
  • meaningful
  • metaphorical
  • redolent
  • referential
  • reminiscent
  • representative
  • significant
  • significative
  • suggestive
  • symbolic
  • symptomatic
  • typical

What Are Antonyms of the Word Connotative?

Numerous words have the opposite denotative meaning of the word connotative as well, which are known as antonyms. We’ve got you covered when it comes to antonyms of connotative. These words refer to things that are denotative or explicit.

  • allegorical
  • allusive
  • apocalyptic
  • appellative
  • armorial
  • associational
  • characteristic
  • connotative
  • demonstrative
  • denominative
  • denotative
  • denoting
  • denotive
  • designating
  • designative
  • designatory
  • diagnostic
  • emblematic
  • emblematical
  • evidential
  • exhibitive
  • exhibitory
  • explicit
  • expressed
  • expressive
  • extensional
  • figurative
  • illustrative
  • implying
  • indicating
  • indicative
  • indicatory
  • literal
  • meaning
  • meaningful
  • metaphoric
  • metaphorical
  • naming
  • narrow
  • parabolic
  • pathognomonic
  • pointing
  • referent
  • referential
  • referring
  • representational
  • representative
  • semantic
  • significant
  • significative
  • signifying
  • suggestive
  • symbolic
  • symbolical
  • symptomatic
  • tropological
  • typical
  • unrhetorical

Conclusion

Connotative is an adjective that refers to the associative meaning or affective meaning of a word rather than the literal definition. Some connotative language creates positive feelings and positive associations, while words with a bad connotation create negative associations. Different connotations create different meanings besides a word’s explicit definition. 

Sources:

  1. Connotative synonyms – 127 Words and Phrases for Connotative | Power Thesaurus 
  2. Connotation definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
  3. Denotative synonyms – 202 Words and Phrases for Denotative | Power Thesaurus  
  4. Connotative | Nice Translator