Denotation refers to the literal, explicit, direct meaning of a word. For example the word "house" refers to a physical structure where people live. If someone used the sentence "They live in a house" the meaning is pretty straightforward and neutral. No value judgment or culturally driven notions can be implied. But if someone said "They live in a shack." Shack is still a physical structure but the word itself carries a lot of "baggage". This baggage is the connotative meaning. At some level "house" and "shack" are both physical structures and you might see the phrase "a physical structure in which people live" in a dictionary. This is the denotative meaning of both but the word "shack" also implies "of poor quality housing" or "rundown" or "not cared for" among other things. Poverty may be implied. So the word "shack" carries with it a lot of connotative meaning where as the word "house" carries almost no connotative meaning. Here are some other examples of words that at some level "denote" the same thing but at another level are very different from a connotative perspective:
| interested | questioning | nosy |
| employ | use | exploit |
| thrifty | saving | stingy |
| steadfast | tenacious | stubborn |
From: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-connotative-words.html. Accessed April 16, 2019
Each of the words in the three columns at some basic level denote a similar meaning. At the core of each word may be the same behavior but each will have additional meaning that is culturally derived. Some of the words will be more neutral while others will have more positive or negative connotations.
