referent is someone who is referring. reference is someone/something who/which is being referred. so, referring is a job. The one doing is is referent, the one he is pointing to is the reference. hope this helps. :)

Adjective Referent - having reference; "judgments referent to the indictment" http://www.thefreedictionary.com/referent It helps to know that in the pronunciation the emphasis is on the, "fer" - "re FER ent".

"Referent" refers to that which is doing the referring, whereas "reference" is that to which is being referred. For example, "horse" is only a word (or a concept, depeding on how far you want to go into Saussurean linguistics (signifier/signified)), whereas the big, hairy animal that runs quickly is the "reference." Does that make sense?