Connotation - an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning. It could be either positive or negative. (It happens to contain nouns and verbs.)
An example of a connotation is,
"Don't be a rat and tell the teacher!" The word rat is the connotation. :))) This is a positive connotation. This exaggerates the word rat, making it a different meaning of what the word actually means.
Denotation - the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests. Once again, could also be negative or positive.
"I saw a rat eating a piece of cheese." The word rat is the denotation. This example shows how the word rat means in the actual phrasing, unlike connotation.
Your understanding of connotation and denotation help you by providing if you plan to exaggerate what you are speaking of or not. In other terms, connotations invoke the true meaning and denotation show the true meaning. It helps differently from different writing tasks. For a narrative, if you wish to be dramatic, you would use connotation. For a serious topic essay where you are summarizing something, you wouldn't want to use a connotation because there's a possibility you will get points taken off for looking silly to the teacher. (It's possible.. trust me. :(((( )
