Serving to denote; denotative; specifically, denoting by means of arbitrary terms, or by terms which have no natural association with the idea expressed: opposed to connotive.

adjective. Serving to denote.

adjective. Serving to denote something.

adjective. having the power of explicitly denoting or designating or naming

"The aborigines were at the time of discovery, and indeed most of them remain today, in the prescriptorial stage of culture, i.e., the stage in which ideas are crystallized, not by means of arbitrary symbols, but by means of arbitrary associations, (18) and in this stage names are connotive or descriptive, rather than denotive as in the scriptorial stage."

appellative  designative  extensional  naming  referent