Is it legitimate to say「意味する」to mean "to mean"?


So like the title asks, I'm wondering if it's legitimate to say 「意味する」 to mean
"to mean". I know 意味 is meaning, and I was wondering what the verb version of
'to mean' would be. An example sentence would be "I didn't _mean_ that." How
would I translate that into Japanese? Or is there a different verb I would
use?




意味する is a stiff transitive verb which means "(for a word/phrase/fact) to
mean". Note that the subject cannot be a person or person pronoun like 私. The
subject of 意味する is usually a (difficult) word/phrase, sometimes a certain fact
or a phenomenon.

>   * 曾祖父とは祖父母の父を意味する。  
>  A grand-grandfather means the father of a grandparent.
>   * 祖父母の父を意味する言葉は何ですか？  
>  What is the word that means the father of a grandparent?
>   * 彼が来たということは作戦が成功したということを意味していた。  
>  The fact that he came meant the mission was successful.
>

"I didn't mean it" usually translates to そういう意味ではありません, そういうつもりではありません,
そうじゃない, etc. If you want to say "(Sorry,) I didn't mean it" after you did
something wrong, consider 悪気はなかったんです or そういうつもりではなかったんです. "She means ～" is
彼女が言いたいのは～です, etc.

