What is the meaning of words?

Before there were words, there were images that created the communication between people. Words didn't come into play until there were others who needed more explanation of the images. Such as the image in your mind versus a painted image. When you see a painted image, in your mind comes the motion or moving image of the mind from the still image. So, since most can't project their images to anothers mind so that they may see the image as you do, we had to come up with some form of communication to express the image of mind. So, the spoken word came into existence after the painted images. Then spoken word slowed down the communication process because the mouth is never faster than the images of mind.

Words are one form of communication versus hand signs and painted or drawn images used for communication.

Here is what Neil Young said about that:

"Words (Between The Lines Of Age)"

Someone and someone were down by the pond

Looking for something to plant in the lawn.

Out in the fields they were turning the soil

I'm sitting here hoping this water will boil

When I look through the windows and out on the road

They're bringing me presents and saying hello.

Singing words, words between the lines of age.

Words, words between the lines of age.

If I was a junkman selling you cars,

Washing your windows and shining your stars,

Thinking your mind was my own in a dream

What would you wonder and how would it seem?

Living in castles a bit at a time

The King started laughing and talking in rhyme.

Singing words, words between the lines of age.

Words, words between the lines of age.

Words are parts of a particular world view -- a "language" (a specific way of seeing the world or a topic) -- and a language is a mutual construct of a culture, a world view, or set of mutually interdependent theories.

So, words only mean something according to a world view ("culture") they are used in.

They contain the same insights and blindness as that culture.

noun 1.a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two or three such units combined under certain linking conditions, as with the loss of primary accent that distinguishes black·bird· from black· bird·. Words are usually separated by spaces in writing, and are distinguished phonologically, as by accent, in many languages.

Words have both a commonly understood denotative meaning and more personal connotative meanings or associations. For example, the noun "farm" denotes land used for raising crops or produce, but for me it has many associated personal meanings because I grew up on a farm.

Words are symbols of concepts, symbols that have evolved over the millenia of human existence ( since language became possible), essentially by concensus.

That would depend on the word.

This author says it best from an objective perspective.

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/words.html

Otherwise, look up any good "philosophy of language" online.

Words, written or spoken, are symbols that represent ideas.

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