Semantics is the study of meaning in language and is a branch of linguistics. There are several semantic relations that exist between words and sentences. These include hyponymy, antonymy, synonymy, homophony, hypernymy, homonymy, polysemy, paraphrase, entailment, and contradiction. Semantic meaning can also be denotative, referring to the literal or dictionary definition, or connotative, referring to implied cultural meanings beyond literal definitions.