1. an entity in the environment (i.e., a thing, person, or condition) that acts as a stimulus and elicits a response from an organism; that is, a stimulus object.

2. the focal target of attention, perception, or some other process.

3. the “other,” that is, any person or symbolic representation of a person that is not the self and toward whom behavior, cognitions, or affects are directed.

4. in psychoanalytic theory, the person, thing, or part of the body through which an instinct can achieve its aim of gratification. See object cathexis; object relations.

5. the person (real or imagined) who is loved by an individual’s ego: his or her love object.

6. in linguistics, a noun, pronoun, or complex noun that is governed by an active transitive verb or a preposition, such as dinner in I ate dinner or I came after dinner. Objects of verbs can be divided into direct objects (e.g., cake in Mary ate the cake) and indirect objects (e.g., Mary in John gave Mary the cake).