referent
/ˈrefərənt/noun
- Linguistics the thing in the world that a word or phrase denotes or stands for【语言学】（词语）所指事物, 所指对象：
'the Morning Star' and 'the Evening Star' have the same referent (the planet Venus).
“晨星”和“昏星”指的是同一物（金星）。
词源
mid 19th cent.: from Latin referent- 'bringing back', from the verb referre （see REFER）.