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American Heritage Dictionary:
def·i·ni·tion |

[Middle English diffinicioun, from Old French definition, from Latin dēfīnītiō, dēfīnītiōn-, from dēfīnītus, past participle of dēfīnīre, to define. See define.]
definitional def'i·ni'tion·al adj.
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
definition |
For more information on definition, visit Britannica.com.
Antonyms by Answers.com:
definition |
Definition: description
Antonyms: ambiguity, blurriness, nonsense, vagueness
Oxford Companion to the Photograph:
definition |
Definition in a photograph is a subjective assessment of image quality and apparent sharpness based largely on the measurable factors of resolving power, acutance, and granularity.
Resolving power is a measure of the ability of the optical system (i.e. lens plus light-sensitive material) to record fine detail. It is usually stated in line pairs per millimetre. There are several types of test chart for this; one frequently used is the USAF bar chart, which has sets of three black bars on a white background, decreasing in size towards the centre of a spiral (Fig. 1a). The limit of resolution is the point at which the direction of the bars can no longer be distinguished. Both high- and low-contrast charts are used. The latter gives a lower resolving power, but is more appropriate in actual scenes. Resolving power can also be assessed from the shape and size of the point spread function, which is a plot of the profile of the image of a point (Fig. 1b). In digital photography, of course, the limit of resolution of the light-sensitive surface is the pixel size.
Acutance is a measure of the sharpness of an image edge. It is defined by the edge spread function and measured by tracing across an image edge with a microdensitometer (a densitometer with a very small aperture), and plotting the result (Fig. 2). The acutance is the geometric mean of the slope of the edge trace divided by the overall density difference. Acutance in a photographic emulsion depends to a large extent on the nature of the developer used.
Granularity is a figure related to mean grain size. It is also measured using a microdensitometer, scanning an area of uniform density (Fig. 3). The figure is obtained from the standard deviation figure for the density fluctuations. ‘Graininess’ is also related to grain size, but is subjective. Its effect on definition is most noticeable in low-contrast areas of fine detail, where it may be the factor defining the visual limit of resolution.




— Graham Saxby
See also optical transfer function.Bibliography
Word Tutor:
definition |
Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of style.
— Jonathan Swift (1667-1745).
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Quotes About:
Definition |
Quotes:
"In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined."
- Thomas Szasz
"It is the business of thought to define things, to find the boundaries; thought, indeed, is a ceaseless process of definition. It is the business of Art to give things shape. Anyone who takes no delight in the firm outline of an object, or in its essential character, has no artistic sense. He cannot even be nourished by Art. Like Ephraim, he feeds upon the East wind, which has no boundaries."
- Vance Palmer
"The human mind is so complex and things are so tangled up with each other that, to explain a blade of straw, one would have to take to pieces an entire universe. A definition is a sack of flour compressed into a thimble."
- Remy De Gourmont
"By speaking, by thinking, we undertake to clarify things, and that forces us to exacerbate them, dislocate them, schematize them. Every concept is in itself an exaggeration."
- Jose Ortega Y Gasset
"Men have defined the parameters of every subject. All feminist arguments, however radical in intent or consequence, are with or against assertions or premises implicit in the male system, which is made credible or authentic by the power of men to name."
- Andrea Dworkin
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Aviation:
definition |
Saunders Veterinary Dictionary:
definition |
Establishment of a clear boundary, a clear line of demarcation.
Mosby's Dental Dictionary:
definition |
The property of projected images relating to their sharpness, distinctness, or clarity of outline. Penumbra width is a measure of definition.
Random House Word Menu:
categories related to 'definition' |

Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Definition |
A definition (≝) is a passage that explains the meaning of a term (a word, phrase or other set of symbols), or a type of thing. The term to be defined is the definiendum. A term may have many different senses or meanings. For each such specific sense, a definiens is a cluster of words that defines that term.
A chief difficulty in managing definition is the need to use other terms that are already understood or whose definitions are easily obtainable. The use of the term in a simple example may suffice. By contrast, a dictionary definition has additional details, typically including an etymology showing snapshots of the earlier meanings and the parent language.
Like other words, the term definition has subtly different meanings in different contexts. A definition may be descriptive of the general use meaning, or stipulative of the speaker's immediate intentional meaning. For example, in formal languages like mathematics, a 'stipulative' definition guides a specific discussion. A descriptive definition can be shown to be "right" or "wrong" by comparison to general usage, but a stipulative definition can only be disproved by showing a logical contradiction.[1]
A precising definition extends the descriptive dictionary definition (lexical definition) of a term for a specific purpose by including additional criteria that narrow down the set of things meeting the definition.
C.L. Stevenson has identified persuasive definition as a form of stipulative definition which purports to describe the "true" or "commonly accepted" meaning of a term, while in reality stipulating an altered use, perhaps as an argument for some specific view.
Stevenson has also noted that some definitions are "legal" or "coercive", whose object is to create or alter rights, duties or crimes.[2]
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Contents
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An intensional definition, also called a coactive definition, specifies the necessary and sufficient conditions for a thing being a member of a specific set. Any definition that attempts to set out the essence of something, such as that by genus and differentia, is an intensional definition.
An extensional definition, also called a denotative definition, of a concept or term specifies its extension. It is a list naming every object that is a member of a specific set.
So, for example, an intensional definition of 'Prime Minister' might be the most senior minister of a cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. An extensional definition would be a list of all past, present and future prime ministers.
One important form of the extensional definition is ostensive definition. This gives the meaning of a term by pointing, in the case of an individual, to the thing itself, or in the case of a class, to examples of the right kind. So you can explain who Alice (an individual) is by pointing her out to me; or what a rabbit (a class) is by pointing at several and expecting me to 'catch on'. The process of ostensive definition itself was critically appraised by Ludwig Wittgenstein.[3]
An enumerative definition of a concept or term is an extensional definition that gives an explicit and exhaustive listing of all the objects that fall under the concept or term in question. Enumerative definitions are only possible for finite sets and only practical for relatively small sets.[citation needed]
Divisio and partitio are classical terms for definitions. A partitio is simply an intensional definition. A divisio is not an extensional definition. Divisio is an exhaustive list of subsets of a set, in the sense that every member of the "divided" set is a member of one of the subsets. An extreme form of divisio lists all sets whose only member is a member of the "divided" set. The difference between this and an extensional definition is that extensional definitions list members, and not sets.[4]
A genus–differentia definition is a type of intensional definition, and it is composed by two parts:
For example, consider these two definitions:
Those definitions can be expressed as a genus and 2 differentiae:
When multiple definitions could serve equally well, then all such definitions apply simultaneously. For instance, given the following:
both of these definitions of 'square' are equally acceptable:
Thus, a 'square' is a member of both the genus 'rectangle' and the genus 'rhombus'. In such a case, it is notationally convenient to consolidate the definitions into one definition that is expressed with multiple genera (and possibly no differentia, as in the following):
or completely equivalently:
Certain rules have traditionally been given for this particular type of definition.[5][6][7]
In classical thought, a definition was taken to be a statement of the essence of a thing. Aristotle had it that an object's essential attributes form its "essential nature", and that a definition of the object must include these essential attributes.[8]
The idea that a definition should state the essence of a thing led to the distinction between nominal and real essence, originating with Aristotle. In a passage from the Posterior Analytics,[9] he says that we can know the meaning of a made-up name (he gives the example 'goat stag'), without knowing what he calls the 'essential nature' of the thing that the name would denote, if there were such a thing. This led medieval logicians to distinguish between what they called the quid nominis or 'whatness of the name', and the underlying nature common to all the things it names, which they called the quid rei or 'whatness of the thing'. (Early modern philosophers like Locke used the corresponding English terms 'nominal essence' and 'real essence'). The name 'hobbit', for example, is perfectly meaningful. It has a quid nominis. But we could not know the real nature of hobbits, even if there were such things, and so we cannot know the real nature or quid rei of hobbits. By contrast, the name 'man' denotes real things (men) that have a certain quid rei. The meaning of a name is distinct from the nature that thing must have in order that the name apply to it.
This leads to a corresponding distinction between nominal and real definition. A nominal definition is the definition explaining what a word means, i.e. which says what the 'nominal essence' is, and is definition in the classical sense as given above. A real definition, by contrast, is one expressing the real nature or quid rei of the thing.
This preoccupation with essence dissipated in much of modern philosophy. Analytic philosophy in particular is critical of attempts to elucidate the essence of a thing. Russell described it as "a hopelessly muddle-headed notion".[10]
More recently Kripke's formalisation of possible world semantics in modal logic led to a new approach to essentialism. Insofar as the essential properties of a thing are necessary to it, they are those things it possesses in all possible worlds. Kripke refers to names used in this way as rigid designators.
A recursive definition, sometimes also called an inductive definition, is one that defines a word in terms of itself, so to speak, albeit in a useful way. Normally this consists of three steps:
For instance, we could define natural number as follows (after Peano):
So "0" will have exactly one successor, which for convenience we can call "1". In turn, "1" will have exactly one successor, which we would call "2", and so on. Notice that the second condition in the definition itself refers to natural numbers, and hence involves self-reference. Although this sort of definition involves a form of circularity, it is not vicious, and the definition has been quite successful.
A working definition is either chosen for an occasion and may not fully conform with established or authoritative definitions. Not knowing of established definitions would be grounds for selecting or devising a working definition. Or it refers to a definition being developed; a tentative definition that can be tailored to create an authoritative definition.
Given that a natural language such as English contains, at any given time, a finite number of words, any comprehensive list of definitions must either be circular or rely upon primitive notions. If every term of every definiens must itself be defined, "where at last should we stop?"[11][12] A dictionary, for instance, insofar as it is a comprehensive list of lexical definitions, must resort to circularity.[13][14][15]
Many philosophers have chosen instead to leave some terms undefined. The scholastic philosophers claimed that the highest genera (the so-called ten generalissima) cannot be defined, since we cannot assign any higher genus under which they may fall. Thus we cannot define being, unity and similar concepts.[6] Locke supposes in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding[16] that the names of simple concepts do not admit of any definition. More recently Bertrand Russell sought to develop a formal language based on logical atoms. Other philosophers, notably Wittgenstein, rejected the need for any undefined simples. Wittgenstein pointed out in his Philosophical Investigations that what counts as a "simple" in one circumstance might not do so in another.[17] He rejected the very idea that every explanation of the meaning of a term needed itself to be explained: "As though an explanation hung in the air unless supported by another one",[18] claiming instead that explanation of a term is only needed when we need to avoid misunderstanding.
Locke and Mill also argued that we cannot define individuals. We learn names by connecting an idea with a sound, so that speaker and hearer have the same idea when the same word is used.[19] This is not possible when no one else is acquainted with the particular thing that has "fallen under our notice".[20] Russell offered his theory of descriptions in part as a way of defining a proper name, the definition being given by a definite description that "picks out" exactly one individual. Saul Kripke pointed to difficulties with this approach, especially in relation to modality, in his book Naming and Necessity.
There is a presumption in the classic example of a definition that the definiens can be stated. Wittgenstein argued that for some terms this is not the case.[21] The examples he used include game, number and family. In such cases, he argued, there is no fixed boundary that can be used to provide a definition. Rather, the items are grouped together because of a family resemblance. For terms such as these it is not possible and indeed not necessary to state a definition; rather, one simply comes to understand the use of the term.
In medical dictionaries, definitions should to the greatest extent possible be:
| Look up definition in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
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Translations:
Definition |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - definering, definition, skarphedsgrad, skarphed i omrids
idioms:
Nederlands (Dutch)
definitie, omschrijving, afbakening, (beeld) scherpte (van lens)
Français (French)
n. - définition, délimitation, (Phot) netteté, (TV) définition, netteté, (Opt) pouvoir de résolution
idioms:
Deutsch (German)
n. - Definition, Genauigkeit, Bildschärfe
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (καθ)ορισμός, προσδιορισμός
idioms:
Italiano (Italian)
distinzione, delimitazione, definizione, chiarezza
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n. - definição (f)
idioms:
Русский (Russian)
определение, разрешение, разграничение
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
n. - determinación, demarcación, definición, nitidez de imagen
idioms:
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - definition
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
定义, 清晰度, 精确度
idioms:
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 定義, 清晰度, 精確度
idioms:
idioms:
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 定義, 教理決定, はっきりさせること, 描写力
idioms:
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) تعريف, توضيح
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - הגדרה, צלילות
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