use-mention distinction

名词noun

1. 1(linguistics, philosophy, uncountable) The distinction between the use of a word for its meaning (as in cheese is derived from milk) and the mention of a word as a lexical unit (as in ‘cheese’ is derived from a word in Old English). (This distinction is conventionally marked in any of several ways, such as italic or quote marks.)
2. 2countableAn instance of this distinction.