Referent
Referent
The object towards which an act of reference is directed. See Referend. — L.W.
(1) That which is denoted by a word, sentence, utterance or judgment.
(2) A term used by adherents of a certain causal theory of meaning. That event to which a symbol is actually used to refer.
More explicitly– Let “context” be used to mean a set of events such that events of the same kind and in the same relations recur “nearly uniformly.” Let a be an event such that the complex event a + b would be a context of character C. Let it be granted that a certain utterance (or expectation) is caused jointly by the occurrence of a and residual traces in the speaker of previous adaptations to contexts of character C. Then that event which, in conjunction with a constitutes a context of character C is called the i of the utterance in question. (This covers only true utterances. The ‘referents’ of false expectations and general beliefs require a separate account). See Ogden and Richards, Meaning of Meaning, passim.
(3) In any proposition of form ‘aRb’, where R is a propositional function of two variables, a is termed the referent by contrast with the relatum b. (Due to Whitehead and Russell, Principia Mathematica). — M.B.