SIGNATURE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does signature mean? 

• SIGNATURE (noun)
  The noun SIGNATURE has 5 senses:

1. your name written in your own handwriting

2. a distinguishing style

3. a melody used to identify a performer or a dance band or radio/tv program

4. the sharps or flats that follow the clef and indicate the key

5. a sheet with several pages printed on it; it folds to page size and is bound with other signatures to form a book

  Familiarity information: SIGNATURE used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SIGNATURE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Your name written in your own handwriting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("signature" is a kind of...):

name (a language unit by which a person or thing is known)

Meronyms (parts of "signature"):

paraph (a flourish added after or under your signature (originally to protect against forgery))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "signature"):

allograph (a signature written by one person for another)

autograph; John Hancock (a person's own signature)

countersign; countersignature (a second confirming signature endorsing a document already signed)

endorsement; indorsement (a signature that validates something)

sign manual (the signature of a sovereign on an official document)

Derivation:

sign (mark with one's signature; write one's name (on))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A distinguishing style

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

signature; touch

Context example:

this room needs a woman's touch

Hypernyms ("signature" is a kind of...):

fashion; manner; mode; style; way (how something is done or how it happens)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "signature"):

common touch (the property of appealing to people in general (usually by appearing to have qualities in common with them))

Sense 3

Meaning:

A melody used to identify a performer or a dance band or radio/tv program

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

signature; signature tune; theme song

Hypernyms ("signature" is a kind of...):

air; line; melodic line; melodic phrase; melody; strain; tune (a succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The sharps or flats that follow the clef and indicate the key

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

key signature; signature

Hypernyms ("signature" is a kind of...):

musical notation ((music) notation used by musicians)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A sheet with several pages printed on it; it folds to page size and is bound with other signatures to form a book

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("signature" is a kind of...):

piece of paper; sheet; sheet of paper (paper used for writing or printing)

Holonyms ("signature" is a part of...):

book (a written work or composition that has been published (printed on pages bound together))

 Context examples 

The nature and extent of the microbial stability varied across the people studied, such that each person had a unique microbial signature.

(Skin microbes fairly stable over time, NIH)

During transformation of a normal cell to a cancer cell, the signature changes, and that change becomes a signal of the presence of cancer.

(Molecular Fingerprint of Tumor, NCI Thesaurus)

Also called biomarker and signature molecule.

(Molecular marker, NCI Dictionary)

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected the faint but distinct signature of dust coming from beyond our solar system.

(Saturn Spacecraft Samples Interstellar Dust, NASA)

A biologic subset of breast carcinoma with a unique molecular signature or expression profile, defined by high expression of HER2, GRB7, and TRAP100, and by lack of expression of estrogen receptors (ER).

(HER2 Positive Breast Carcinoma, NCI Thesaurus)

The team detected the unique spectral signature of molecules made up of aluminum-26 and fluorine (26AlF) in the debris surrounding CK Vulpeculae, which is about 2000 light-years from Earth.

(Stellar Corpse Reveals Origin of Radioactive Molecules, ESO)

Such surface spots would have a different chemical signature and would remain visible for much longer than the bright features in this study, which were visible for only 11 hours to five weeks.

(Dust Storms on Titan Spotted for the First Time, NASA)

Not only that, but the signature is typewritten.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A pattern recognition alogrithm that identifies patterns that together explain the data as a linear combination of expression signatures.

(Non-negative Matrix Factorization, NCI Thesaurus)

The figure was stiff; but the signature was good for more than that if it was only genuine.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)