Subtext
Etymology
From Latin sub ("under, beneath") + text, from Latin textus, "a thing woven," from texere ("to weave"). So subtext is literally "the weave beneath the weave." The term gained traction in twentieth-century theater and film criticism, naming the layer an actor plays under the written line — the wanting beneath the saying.
noun · /SUB-tekst/
The meaning that runs beneath the literal words, implied rather than stated outright.
What it names
The real conversation happening under the polite one — what a line is doing or wanting that its surface words never admit.
Example
On the surface she praised his ambition; the subtext was that he’d overstepped badly.
Related idea
Subtext is meaning deliberately left beneath the words; connotation is the associations a word simply carries. Subtext is authored and situational; connotation rides along with the vocabulary itself.