Reference

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

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

Relation; regard; respect.

One who, or that which, is referred to.

One of whom inquires can be made as to the integrity, capacity, and the like, of another.

A work, or a passage in a work, to which one is referred.

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

The process of sending any matter, for inquiry in a cause, to a master or other officer, in order that he may ascertain facts and report to the court.

Appeal.

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 too often answered evasively"

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"

(computer science) the code that identifies where a piece of information is stored

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"

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"