references

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of reference.

   The report's footnotes contain dozens of references to earlier studies.

   He checked the candidate's references before offering her the position.

   Note

   One plural serves every countable use of the noun, so context does the sorting. A job seeker's references are usually statements vouching for her. In British and Irish usage, the word can also name the people who give them, the referees themselves. A library's references are its reference works. Uncountable uses, such as the archaic literary sense of relation, rarely take the plural.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of reference.

   The author references several earlier studies in the opening chapter.

   Each time the manual references that diagram, the page number is wrong.

   Note

   The verb form carries a usage caution. When it means citing a source or supplying a text with its list of sources, no one objects. When it merely means "mentions," some usage guides frown on it and prefer refers to: a speech that refers to the war, rather than one that references it. Programmers use it freely, since a pointer references a value stored in memory.

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