User:Lou Sander/New Article
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Definitions defined[edit]
In modern usage, a definition is something, typically a group of words, that attaches a meaning to a different word or group of words. The word or group of words that is to be defined is called the definiendum, and the word, group of words, or action that defines it is called the definiens. In the definition "An elephant is a large gray animal native to Asia and Africa", the word "elephant" is the definiendum, and everything after the word "is" is the definiens.[1]
Note that the definiens is not the meaning of the word defined, but is instead something that conveys the same meaning as that word.[1]
There are many sub-types of definitions, often specific to a given field of knowledge or study. These include, among many others, lexical definitions, or the common dictionary definitions of words already in a language; demonstrative definitions, which define something by pointing to an example of it ("This," [said while pointing to a large grey animal], "is an Asian elephant."); and precising definitions, which reduce the vagueness of a word, typically in some special sense ("Large, among female Asian elephants, is any individual weighing over 5,500 pounds".).[1]