Since a word is a symbol for a concept, it has no meaning apart from the
content of the concept it symbolizes. And since a concept is an integration of
units, it has no content or meaning apart from its units.
The meaning of a concept consists of the units—the existents—which it
integrates, including all the characteristics of these units.
Observe that concepts mean existents, not arbitrarily selected portions of
existents. There is no basis whatever—neither metaphysical nor
epistemological, neither in the nature of reality nor of a conceptual
consciousness—for a division of the characteristics of a concept’s units into
two groups, one of which is excluded from the concept’s meaning.