The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word SEMANTICS
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
S
E
M
A
N
T
I
C
S
More clues leading to the result SEMANTICS
- Meaning of occasionally steamy goings-on?
- Meaning of extremely strange male capers
- Maize’s perverse fun and games with word meanings
- Reputations built up on signs of approval heard for study of meaning
- Meaningful study in a mess with voiding of contract, unfortunately
- Stance I’m adapting relating to meanings of words
- Scan Times in order to find such study of language
- The meaning of words initially shifting? This setter’s flipping tricks!
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "word meanings" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case word meanings = semantics.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does SEMANTICS mean?
SEMANTICS noun- A branch of linguistics studying the meaning of words.
- The study of the relationship between words and their meanings.
- The individual meanings of words, as opposed to the overall meaning of a passage.
- The meaning of computer language constructs, in contrast to their form or syntax.