Other forms: signifying, signifies, signified
To signify is to be a sign of, or to mean. What does it signify, signify agreement, signifying nothing.
It is formal and slightly literary. Signifying nothing is from Macbeth and is the phrase most people know it from. In linguistics, the signifier and the signified are the word and the thing it points to, which is Saussure's distinction and the foundation of a whole field. Note significant, signification; and that the Latin means to make a sign.
1verbsignifyTo be a sign of, or to mean.
“A red flag on the beach signifies that it is dangerous to swim.”
signify is a meaning.
Latin significare is signum, a sign, plus facere, to make. Sign, design, signal and significant come from the same sign.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeh₁-
Latin
significare
Old French
signifier
Middle English
signifien
English, today
signify
Middle English signifien, from Old French signifier, from Latin significare.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA