Definition

squestions:
It is a mode of paragraph development that answers the

-What is it?
-What does it mean?
-What are its special features?
The word to be defined may be an object, a concept, a
person, a place, or a phenomenon.
It is important because it clarifies the meaning of a word or a
concept and it alsolimits the scopeof that particular word
or concept. Limiting the scope controls and avoids
misinterpretations, vague notions, and or broad.
Purposes of
Definitions
1. To clarify meaning of words, or to correct misinterpretations, or
misuse of a term.

2. To stipulate the meaning of a term by limiting, extending, or

redirecting the sense in which a term is usually understood; to
use a term, borrowed from another field of knowledge, in a
special way.
Ex: “Window dressing” – used to make a shop window more
attractive to buyers.
-stipulatively used in a false banking report to deceptively project an
impression of economic stability or financial growth.
Definition
Techniques
1. FORMAL DEFINITION
- It is the most common form of defining in which you are given a
term to be defined and you define a term by giving the class
where the word/term belongs (the genus) and the characteristics
that distinguish the term from other terms, known as the
differentia.
For example:
TERM =GENUS +DIFFERENTIA
DEFINITION = a mode of + that answers the question what is
paragraph it, what does it mean, or what is its
development special features

ROBOT = is a machine + that looks like a human being and

performs complex acts of a human
being
Definition
2. By synonym- using a word
Techniques
or phrase that shares a
meaning with the term being defined (Ex: Hashish – marijuana.)

3.By etymology- define the word by tracing its origin or semantic history (Ex. Yoga comes from
the Sanskrit “to join”)

4.By Illustration – defining a term by setting examples (Ex: Known for their shedding their
leaves in the fall, deciduous trees include oaks, maples, and beeches.)

5.By function – is stating the term what is for (Ex: A thermometer measures temperature
change.)

6.By analysis – is breaking down wholes into parts, aspects into levels, and a process into
steps (Ex: The republican form of government has three branches: the executive, the
legislative, and the judiciary.)
Definition
Techniques
EXTENDED DEFINITION
- is needed to define abstract concepts. It
allows the definition to broaden by using
analogy, metaphor, comparison and
contrast, analysis, functions,
descriptions, etymology and semantic
origin
Definition
7.By similarity – use of likeness (Ex: Brighter than 100million suns, quasars
Techniques
stand like beacons on the shore of the universe…)

8.By metaphor – is comparing the term to another object/concept/idea

that shares characteristics as the term being defined (Ex: The germs and
bacteria or antigens are a gang of villains invading our body, attacking our
unseen defenders, the layers of macrophages, cytokines, and lymphocytes)

9.By contrast- use of opposites (Ex: Unlike those of gas, the particles of
plasma are electrically charged.)

10.By negation – stating what a term is not (Ex: Wild rice, an American
delicacy, is not rice at all but the seed of a tall aquatic grass.)