Please tell me the grammar of this sentence.

[AUTOMOON]

Nationalist means connected with the desire of a group of people within a country for political independence.
This is a sentence I found in a dictionary. I am confused about the " means connected" part. Anyone please help me with the grammar points concerned here?Thanks.

 

[corum]

(The word) Nationalist means (to be) connected with the desire of a group of people within a country for political independence.

 

[bhaisahab]

Nationalist means connected with the desire of a group of people within a country for political independence.
This is a sentence I found in a dictionary. I am confused about the " means connected" part. Anyone please help me with the grammar points concerned here?Thanks.

Try looking at it like this:
"Nationalist" means: "connected with the desire of a group of people within a country for political independence".
In other words: The meaning of "nationalist" is...

 

[AUTOMOON]

I know that but I want to know what grammer points employed in this sentence. Besides, if we should inteprete the sentence that way, why isn't there the quote marks? It still doesn't have the quotation marks,right?

 

[corum]

The word nationlist means something.

Would you include 'something' within quotation marks? No. IMO all your questions has been answered.

 

[Tdol]

In the dictionary, the word is given in bold to show that it is the word being defined: Definition "nationalist" - Collins English Dictionary & Thesaurus, spelling "nationalist" - Reverso

 

[AUTOMOON]

I know. But collions usually explain a work with a sentence. I am just confused becasue we seldom say "mean+adective", we only say "mean+sth".

 

[corum]

Compare:

Noir is a French adjective, which means "black". -- translate, " ",
Nationalist means [being connected with the desire of a group of people within a country for political independence]. -- describe, no " ",