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Refer vs. Reference

Refer and Reference Definitions

Refer

To direct to a source for help or information
Referred her to a heart specialist.
Referred me to his last employer for a recommendation.

Reference

The act of referring to something
Filed away the article for future reference.

Refer

To submit (a matter in dispute) to an authority for arbitration, decision, or examination.

Reference

Significance for a specified matter; relation or relationship
Her speeches have special reference to environmental policy.

Refer

To direct the attention of
I refer you to the training manual.

Reference

Meaning or denotation
The reference of the word “lion” is to a kind of wild cat.
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Refer

To assign or attribute to; regard as originated by.

Reference

A mention of an occurrence or situation
Made frequent references to her promotion.

Refer

To assign to or regard as belonging within a particular kind or class
Referred the newly discovered partita to the 1600s.

Reference

A note in a publication referring the reader to another passage or source.

Refer

To relate or pertain; concern
Questions referring to yesterday's lecture.

Reference

The passage or source so referred to.
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Refer

To serve as a descriptor or have as a denotation
The word chair refers to a piece of furniture.

Reference

A work frequently used as a source.

Refer

To speak or write about something briefly or incidentally; make reference
Referred during our conversation to several books he was reading.

Reference

A mark or footnote used to direct a reader elsewhere for additional information.

Refer

To turn one's attention, as in seeking information
Refer to a dictionary.

Reference

Submission of a case to a referee.
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Refer

(transitive) To direct the attention of (someone toward something)
The shop assistant referred me to the help desk on ground floor.

Reference

Legal proceedings conducted before or by a referee.

Refer

(transitive) To submit to (another person or group) for consideration; to send or direct elsewhere.
He referred the matter to the principal.
To refer a patient to a psychiatrist

Reference

A person who recommends another or who can vouch for another's fitness or qualifications, as for a job.

Refer

To place in or under by a mental or rational process; to assign to, as a class, a cause, source, a motive, reason, or ground of explanation.
He referred the phenomena to electrical disturbances.

Reference

A statement about a person's qualifications, character, and dependability.

Refer

(intransitive) To mention (something); to direct attention (to something)
To explain the problem, the teacher referred to an example in another textbook.

Reference

To supply (a text) with references
The author hadn't adequately referenced the third chapter, so the copyeditor suggested adding more citations. This article is thoroughly referenced with up-to-date sources.

Refer

To make reference to; to be about; to relate to; to regard; to allude to.
The recipe referred to several unusual ingredients.

Reference

To cite as a reference
The monograph doesn't reference any peer-reviewed articles.

Refer

(grammar) To be referential to another element in a sentence.

Reference

Usage Problem To mention or allude to
The comedian's monologue referenced many Hollywood stars.

Refer

To point to either a specific location in computer memory or to a specific object. to
In C, the pointer obtained by &a refers to the variable a.

Reference

A relationship or relation (to something).

Refer

Required to resit an examination.
Smith's marks in the finals were unsatisfactory and he was referred.

Reference

A measurement one can compare (some other measurement) to.

Refer

(journalism) A blurb on the front page of a newspaper issue or section that refers the reader to the full story inside the issue or section by listing its slug or headline and its page number.

Reference

Information about a person, provided by someone (a referee) with whom they are well acquainted.

Refer

To carry or send back.

Reference

A person who provides this information; onlyn in UK English: a referee.

Refer

Hence: To send or direct away; to send or direct elsewhere, as for treatment, aid, information, decision, etc.; to make over, or pass over, to another; as, to refer a student to an author; to refer a beggar to an officer; to refer a bill to a committee; a court refers a matter of fact to a commissioner for investigation, or refers a question of law to a superior tribunal.

Reference

A reference work.

Refer

To place in or under by a mental or rational process; to assign to, as a class, a cause, source, a motive, reason, or ground of explanation; as, he referred the phenomena to electrical disturbances.
I'll refer me to all things sense.

Reference

(attributive) That which serves as a reference work.
Reference Dictionary of Linguistics

Refer

To have recourse; to apply; to appeal; to betake one's self; as, to refer to a dictionary.
In suits . . . it is to refer to some friend of trust.

Reference

The act of referring: a submitting for information or decision.

Refer

To have relation or reference; to relate; to point; as, the figure refers to a footnote.
Of those places that refer to the shutting and opening the abyss, I take notice of that in Job.

Reference

(semantics) A relation between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object.

Refer

To carry the mind or thought; to direct attention; as, the preacher referred to the late election.

Reference

(academic writing) A short written identification of a previously published work which is used as a source for a text.

Refer

To direct inquiry for information or a guarantee of any kind, as in respect to one's integrity, capacity, pecuniary ability, and the like; as, I referred to his employer for the truth of his story.
Now to the universal whole advert:The earth regard as of that whole a part.

Reference

(academic writing) A previously published written work thus indicated; a source.

Refer

Make reference to;
His name was mentioned in connection with the invention

Reference

(computing) An object containing information which refers to data stored elsewhere, as opposed to containing the data itself.

Refer

Have to do with or be relevant to;
There were lots of questions referring to her talk
My remark pertained to your earlier comments

Reference

A special sequence used to represent complex characters in markup languages, such as ™ for the ™ symbol.

Refer

Think of, regard, or classify under a subsuming principle or with a general group or in relation to another;
This plant can be referred to a known species

Reference

(obsolete) Appeal.

Refer

Send or direct for treatment, information, or a decision;
Refer a patient to a specialist
Refer a bill to a committee

Reference

To provide a list of references for (a text).
You must thoroughly reference your paper before submitting it.

Refer

Seek information from;
You should consult the dictionary
Refer to your notes

Reference

To refer to, to use as a reference.
Reference the dictionary for word meanings.

Refer

Have as a meaning;
`multi-' denotes `many'

Reference

To mention, to cite.
In his speech, the candidate obliquely referenced the past failures of his opponent.

Reference

(programming) To contain the value that is a memory address of some value stored in memory.
The given pointer will reference the actual generated data.

Reference

The act of referring, or the state of being referred; as, reference to a chart for guidance.

Reference

That which refers to something; a specific direction of the attention; as, a reference in a text-book.

Reference

Relation; regard; respect.
Something that hath a reference to my state.

Reference

One who, or that which, is referred to.

Reference

The act of submitting a matter in dispute to the judgment of one or more persons for decision.

Reference

Appeal.

Reference

A remark that calls attention to something or someone;
She made frequent mention of her promotion
There was no mention of it
The speaker made several references to his wife

Reference

A short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage;
The student's essay failed to list several important citations
The acknowledgments are usually printed at the front of a book
The article includes mention of similar clinical cases

Reference

An indicator that orients you generally;
It is used as a reference for comparing the heating and the electrical energy involved

Reference

A book to which you can refer for authoritative facts;
He contributed articles to the basic reference work on that topic

Reference

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

Reference

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

Reference

The act of referring or consulting;
Reference to an encyclopedia produced the answer

Reference

A publication (or a passage from a publication) that is referred to;
He carried an armful of references back to his desk
He spent hours looking for the source of that quotation

Reference

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

Reference

Refer to;
He referenced his colleagues' work

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