Vagueness word or group of words with fuzzy, blurry, or inexact meanings Eg.

. Fine, cold Ambiguity words or phrases that have the ability to express more than one interpretation Eg. I was eating with my cat (eating while cat was present or using cat to eat) Semantic ambiguity not clear as to what a single word or phrase in the expression refers to. Words that have more than one meaning Eg. Children make nutritious snacks Syntactical ambiguity results from faulty grammar or word order Eg. I gave a few olives to my friend that I stabbed with a fork Overgenerality words are too general. Information given is too broad and unspecific Eg. Where are you going? Out. Stipulative creating new words or giving a new meaning to an old word Eg. Lottoholic someone who is obsessed with playing the lottery Persuasive subjective definitions in which an arguer tries to persuade someone to agree with the thing being defined Eg. Capital punishment means the state sanctioned, vengeful murder of helpless prisoners Lexical definitions stating the conventional, dictionary meaning of word Eg. Pastel colour having a soft, subdued shade Precising intend to make a vague word more precise Eg. A heavy smoker for the purpose of this clinica trial, is anyone who smokes more than 24 cigarettes per day Ostensive simply pointing to, or demonstrating, thing being defined Eg. Door means this Enumerative providing specific examples of what the word refers to Eg. Actor means Tom Cruise Definition by subclass assign a meaning to a word by listing subclasses of the general class to which the word refers. List entire classes or categories Eg. Mammal means gorilla, horse, etc. Etymological whence a word came, ancestry Eg. Automobile Greek autos (self) + Latin mobilis (move) Synonymous assign a meaning to a word by offering a synonym Eg. Loquacious = talkative. Deleterious = harmful Genus and difference assign a meaning to a word by identifying a general class (genus) to which things named by the word belong and then specifying the difference that distinguishes those things from all other things in the class Eg. Automobile means a passenger behicle that usually has 4 wheels and an internal-combustion engine and is used for transportation on streets, etc. Too broad or narrow should apply to all and only the things being defined Eg. Automobile = vehicle with 4 wheels (too broad). Sibling = brother (too narrow) Fails to capture essential meaning Eg. Horse = animal ridden by Napoleon Figurative definitions figure of speech involving metaphors Eg. Advertising means legalized lying Circular definition Eg. Gambler means someone who gambles