Meanings are connections in consciousness. If you are conscious of a word and the thing or idea the word refers to, you have a simple bit of meaning. That word means that thing in the world.

Obviously, seen this way, the world is full of meanings— wrong meanings, contradictory meanings, myopic meanings, etc. but meaning nonetheless. Human minds are capable of being conscious of extraordinary things— a scientifically educated person can look at a flower in the afternoon and create meanings for hours. The way the light bounces off the flower and is processed by our eyes and brains; the limitations of our sensitivity to light; the biochemical processes the flower is undergoing to remain alive; the flower's role in its ecosystem, etc. are a meaningful, wonderful way of experiencing the world.

Purpose is derived from meanings about significant scales. The self, family, culture, species, life, and the universe are all scales at which we can create and conceive of meanings. Purpose is a relationship with a larger scale of functions that outlasts our finite selves.

I suspect the trouble with meaning isn't so much that it doesn't exist, but that it can be illusory in ways to which we are can be blind.