What does signified mean?
Signified is the past tense and past participle of signify, meaning to indicate, mean, or serve as a sign of something. It can describe what a gesture, object, event, or statement communicates: a raised hand may signify agreement, while a change in weather can signify a shift in season. The word is especially common in formal writing and in contexts involving deliberate communication, such as correspondence, law, and diplomacy. It often conveys the idea of meaning or intention more clearly than a vaguer alternative such as suggests. Although signified can occasionally function independently as an adjective meaning “having a specified meaning,” most modern speakers encounter it as part of the verb phrase. It should not be confused with significant, which usually emphasizes importance or statistical significance rather than the act of indicating meaning. Signified is consequently a precise and useful word when the focus is on what something communicates.
To indicate or mean something; to serve as a sign of a particular condition, meaning, or intention.
"The empty corridors signified that the building had been abandoned."
This is the past tense and past participle of signify. It is especially common in formal prose but is fully accepted in ordinary speech.
Having a specified meaning or significance.
"The distinction between the signifier and the signified is central to his analysis."
This use is uncommon outside technical or philosophical discussion and should not be substituted for the more common word significant.
Its Latin ancestors literally meant “to make a sign”: signum, “sign,” combined with facere, “to make.”
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does signified come from?
Signified belongs to the English word family of signify, which came through Middle English from Latin significare, a verb meaning “to mean” or “to signify.” Latin significare was formed from signum, “a sign or mark,” and facere, “to make,” so its literal sense was “to make a sign.” English later added the standard past-tense and past-participle ending -ed to signify, producing signified.
Related word forms
How signified is actually used
Signified is normally the past tense or past participle of signify. Its independent adjectival use is relatively uncommon and chiefly technical; significant, meaning important or having a particular meaning, is far more frequent in modern English.