 Assuming that at least some token linguistic expressions really do refer, a number of interesting questions arise. How, for example, does linguistic reference relate to the act of referring—something that we as speakers do with referential terms? How exactly do referential terms come to refer? That is, in virtue of what do they refer to what they do? Is there a single answer to this question, a single mechanism of reference, or different answers depending on the sort of term in question? And what exactly is the relationship between reference and meaning? Answers to these various questions will turn out to be closely related; the task of this entry will be to trace out some of the main clusters of answers.