connotation

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: con=no=ta=tion

CIDE DICTIONARY

connotation, n. [Cf. F. connotation.].

•  The act of connoting; a making known or designating something additional; implication of something more than is asserted.  [1913 Webster]
•  a meaning implied but not explicitly denoted by some word or expression, which may be understood in addition to the explicit primary meaning.  [PJC]
•  the full set of necessary properties possessed by all the objects within the extension of a term; the intensional meaning of a term, which determines the objects to which the term applies; the intension of a term.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

connotation, n.
1 that which is implied by a word etc. in addition to its literal or primary meaning (a letter with sinister connotations).
2 the act of connoting or implying.

THESAURUS

connotation

affective meaning, allegory, allusion, arcane meaning, assumption, bearing, coloration, coloring, consequence, denotation, drift, effect, essence, extension, force, gist, grammatical meaning, hint, idea, impact, implication, implied meaning, import, inference, innuendo, intension, intimation, ironic suggestion, lexical meaning, literal meaning, meaning, metaphorical sense, nuance, occult meaning, overtone, pertinence, pith, point, practical consequence, presumption, presupposition, purport, range of meaning, real meaning, reference, referent, relation, relevance, scope, semantic cluster, semantic field, sense, significance, signification, significatum, signifie, span of meaning, spirit, structural meaning, subsense, subsidiary sense, substance, suggestion, sum, sum and substance, supposition, symbolic meaning, symbolism, tenor, tinge, totality of associations, touch, transferred meaning, unadorned meaning, undercurrent, undermeaning, undertone, value