What is the meaning of Denotation?

The act of denoting, or something (such as a symbol) that denotes

The primary, surface, literal, or explicit meaning of a signifier such as a word, phrase, or symbol; that which a word denotes, as contrasted with its connotation; the aggregate or set of objects of which a word may be predicated.

The intension and extension of a word

Something signified or referred to; a particular meaning of a symbol

Any mathematical object which describes the meanings of expressions from the languages, formalized in the theory of denotational semantics

A first level of analysis: what the audience can visually see on a page. Denotation often refers to something literal, and avoids being a metaphor.

denotation (clarification of this definition is needed)

Source: wiktionary.org