Exophora is type of linguistic reference in which reference is made to something extralinguistic. Exophora can be either deixis, in which special words or grammatical markings are used to make reference to something in the context of the utterance or speaker. For example, pronouns, words such as "this", "that", "here", "there".

By contrast, homophoric reference is not a feature of grammar, but rather is a generic phrase given a particular interpretation in a particular social context. For example, in the United Kingdom, the Queen is a homophoric reference to the Queen of the United Kingdom, whereas in the Netherlands the Queen is a homophoric reference to the Queen of the Netherlands.