3.6: Creating Helpful Definitions

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Page ID: 36057

Bradley H. Dowden
California State University Sacramento

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Not everybody uses the word “definition” the same way. Sometimes when you ask for a definition expecting to be told how the word is normally used, you receive something else entirely: "Neurotic means he is not as sensible as I am, and psychotic means he's even worse than my brother-in-law." The definition of a word can serve a variety of purposes other than simply stating how everybody uses the word. Understanding this is helpful to the critical thinker. In addition, people use a wide variety of techniques in creating definitions, so it is important to know about these techniques if you want to understand the definitions and spot errors in those definitions. Because errors in creating definitions can be an obstacle to communication, this section is designed to improve your skill at avoiding these errors. Hopefully you will not use what you learn here to create these errors on purpose, as a means of manipulating others.