The work explores the extensively studied unit of classification in derived words - the derivational type. Various definitions of word-formation types by different authors are provided. Detailed descriptions are given regarding the identification of word-formative meaning by certain derivatologists. The identification of both general and specific word-formation meanings, characteristic of numerous derivatological studies during the last decades of the twentieth century, raises questions about the hierarchy of word-formation meaning. It prompts inquiries into the presence of word-formation meanings of varying degrees of abstraction and generality within the Russian language's word-formation system. This inquiry is interconnected with the "total" and "difference" approaches to word-formation meaning that have emerged in Russian derivatology. The first approach encompasses the semantics of the generating base in the definition of DM, wherein word-formation meaning is construed as a cumulative semantic sum of the generating base and its derivatives. Conversely, the second approach regards word-formation meaning as a recurring semantic distinction between generators and derivatives.