1. The literal meaning of the term or its original definition.
2. The core ideas proposed by the group or by whoever defined the term.
3. The real actions of people who feel identified by a group or people who use the term.
Many times we have misunderstandings because we are thinking about different layers. Also, these differences in meaning are often astutely used to manipulate and tergiverse things.
Examples of terms with different effective meanings depending on the layer: blm, antifa, alt-right, feminism, neoliberalism, capitalism, communism.
One obvious example being the use of "all lives matter" and "blue lives matter" to reinforce the false interpretation of "black lives matter" as meaning "only black lives matter," when the phrase more correctly means "black lives matter as well."
Or the way that "fake news" has been re-appropriated to refer to bias within mainstream media, rather than literally fabricated stories and memes posing as news on social media and the web.
Or ask a feminist and a redpiller to agree on what "toxic masculinity" actually means.