Which term describes the meaning of words and sentences?

• A. Phonology
• B. Pragmatics
• C. Semantics
• D. Syntax

Answer: (C)

Semantics is the study of meaning in language—the meanings of individual words and how those meanings combine to form the sense of sentences. Think of semantics as what words refer to and how their combinations express ideas, truth, or information. For example, the word that names a furry, four-legged animal has a meaning that stays relatively stable across uses, while the sentence "The cat sat on the mat" conveys a particular idea about who did what and where, based on the meanings of the words and how they fit together.

It helps to contrast with related areas: phonology deals with sounds and how we pronounce words; syntax looks at how words are arranged in order to form grammatical phrases; pragmatics focuses on how context, speaker intent, and social factors shape how we interpret meaning beyond the literal words. Semantics stays with the literal content—the contribution of word meanings and their combinations to the overall message—while the other areas explain different aspects of language.