In semantics, semiotics, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and metasemantics, meaning "is a relationship between two sorts of things: signs and the kinds of things they intend, express, or signify".The types of meanings vary according to the types of the thing that is being represented. Namely:
There are the things, which might have meaning;
There are things that are also signs of other things, and so, are always meaningful (i.e., natural signs of the physical world and ideas within the mind);
There are things that are necessarily meaningful such as words and nonverbal symbols.The major contemporary positions of meaning come under the following partial definitions of meaning:
Psychological theories, involving notions of thought, intention, or understanding;
Logical theories, involving notions such as intension, cognitive content, or sense, along with extension, reference, or denotation;
Message, content, information, or communication;
Truth conditions;
Usage, and the instructions for usage; and
Measurement, computation, or operation.