referencing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of reference.

   The lawyer is referencing an earlier ruling to support her case.

   Referencing your sources carefully takes time but builds trust.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every sense of the verb, and they are not equally safe. Referencing a ruling or a source, in the sense of citing it, draws no objection. Neither does a programmer's variable referencing a value in memory. Using it for a mere mention, as in a song referencing an old film, is sometimes proscribed, and careful writers prefer referring to there. The countable noun is the act of citing.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of making a reference: mentioning or citing a source in speech or writing.

   Accurate referencing lets readers trace each claim back to its source.

   The thesis lost marks for sloppy referencing of earlier work.

   Similarcitation, sourcing, attribution

   Note

   As a mass noun it names the craft of citation, as in accurate referencing or sloppy referencing. It can also be counted, each mention a referencing of its own. James R. Taylor and Elizabeth J. Van Every's The Emergent Organization (1999) uses the plural to picture conversation as a chain of referencings, each one bearing some connection to the last. That plural use suits analysis of talk more than everyday prose.

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