We feel as if we had to penetrate phenomena: our investigation, however, is directed not towards phenomena, but, as one might say, towards the 'possi… - Ludwig Wittgenstein

Your questions refer to words; so I have to talk about words. You say: The point isn't the word, but its meaning, and you think of the meaning as a thing of the same kind as the word, though also different from the word. Here the word, there the meaning.

Suppose someone were to say: 'Imagine this butterfly exactly as it is, but ugly instead of beautiful'?!

People are religious to the extent that they believe themselves to be not so
much imperfect, as ill.
Any man who is half-way decent will think himself extremely imperfect,
but a religious man thinks himself wretched.