1.a remark that calls attention to something or someone;
she made frequent mention of her promotion
2.a short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage;
the student's essay failed to list several important citations
3.an indicator that orients you generally;
it is used as a reference for comparing the heating and the electrical energy involved
4.a book to which you can refer for authoritative facts;
he contributed articles to the basic reference work on that topic
5.a formal recommendation by a former employer to a potential future employer describing the person's qualifications and dependability;
requests for character references are all to often answered evasively
6.the most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression; the class of objects that an expression refers to;
the extension of `satellite of Mars' is the set containing only Demos and Phobos
7.the act of referring or consulting;
reference to an encyclopedia produced the answer
8.a publication (or a passage from a publication) that is referred to;
he carried an armful of references back to his desk
9.the relation between a word or phrase and the object or idea it refers to;
he argued that reference is a consequence of conditioned reflexes
1.refer to;
he referenced his colleagues' work