Connotation is a term meaning the associations (often emotionally charged) that accompany a word, as opposed to its denotation, its exact or strict meaning.
In semiotic works, connotation means the secondary or derived meaning, while denotation means the primary or first meaning of the sign.
The meaning of the connotation is central to Roland Barthes‘ semiology.
Meaning is formed as a result of the relationship of the signifier with the signified.
Imagine an ad showing a picture of a young, attractive woman sitting on her friend’s shoulders, both of them apparently having fun on the Florida coast. The picture is the signifier, the couple is the signified. But what is present in the photo is much more than the image of two people: a message is conveyed, first about where and how to have fun. After all, this is an advertisement for a spring break aimed at students. The correlation of this pair and this photographic image of many semiotics is called the plan (level) of denotation; the correlation of this with the message “fun in the sun” is called a plan of connotation.
A third meaning of the connotation uses logic. It is again related to the denotation, but here the connotation is the meaning of the word or expression, and the denotation is the reference (the range of objects to which the word or expression refers). “Planet” means or connotes a body of a rather large size that revolves around the Sun, it refers to (denotes) an actual body that meets this description – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Earth, etc. You could find out what the “planet” annotation is just by looking in the dictionary. The denotation of this word can be discovered using a telescope and other similar instruments.
