meaning

Etymology 1

From Middle English mening, menyng, equivalent to mean + -ing. Cognate with Scots mening (“intent, purpose, sense, meaning”), West Frisian miening (“opinion, mind”), Dutch mening (“view, opinion, judgement”), German Meinung (“opinion, view, mind, idea”), Danish and Swedish mening (“meaning, sense, sentence, opinion”), Icelandic meining (“meaning”).

noun

1. (of words, expressions or symbols)
   1. The denotation, referent, or idea connected with a word, expression, or symbol.
   2. The connotation associated with a word, expression, or symbol.
2. The purpose, value, or significance (of something) beyond the fact of that thing's existence.
   the meaning of life
   The number of persons attending the vigil had a lot of meaning to the families.
3. (of a person's actions) Intention.
   […] there was nothing in the house, what there was, was broken, the last people must have lived like pigs, what could the meaning of the landlord be? 1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House

Etymology 2

From mean + -ing.

verb

1. present participle and gerund of mean
   Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work. 2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist

adj

1. Having a (specified) intention.
2. Expressing some intention or significance; meaningful.
   I might, to-day, have been a better, and thus a happier man, had I less frequently rejected the counsels embodied in those meaning whispers which I then but too cordially hated and too bitterly despised. 1839, Edgar Allan Poe, William Wilson
   There was a meaning pause, broken by old Stein again clapping his hands. 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 243
   [T]he new friends […] knew nothing and did not particularly care to hear about the beautiful mother with her long, meaning looks and liquid dresses and distant smile. 1978, Jane Gardam, God on the Rocks, Abacus, published 2014, page 160