Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The word or words serving to define another word or expression, as in a dictionary entry.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun semantics The word or phrase that defines the definiendum in a definition.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin dēfīniēns, present participle of dēfīnīre, to define; see define.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin, substantive use of dēfīniēns ("[a] defining"), present active participle of dēfīniō ("I set bounds to”, “I define").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word definiens.

Examples

  • More generally, it’s the expression to be defined, as opposed to the definiens, which is the phrase doing the defining.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Definiendum 2010

  • More generally, it’s the expression to be defined, as opposed to the definiens, which is the phrase doing the defining.beamishQuote

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Definiendum 2010

  • M. Whittaker says: surely verbum definiendum, clausa definiens if you un-distill the sense.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Definiendum 2010

  • Substituting the definiens of (EDR) into (SUB) then delivers the following principle:

    Ontological Dependence Lowe, E. Jonathan 2009

  • It would, of course, be easy enough to modify (EDR) 's definiens to read ˜y is not identical with x and, necessarily, x exists only if

    Ontological Dependence Lowe, E. Jonathan 2009

  • The definiens in (EDR) is equivalent, of course, to

    Ontological Dependence Lowe, E. Jonathan 2009

  • (EDX) 's definiens should not be understood as implying that an object x may not dependX for its existence upon two (or more) different things, y and

    Ontological Dependence Lowe, E. Jonathan 2009

  • However, the relations corresponding to such predicates are strictly weaker than PP and PE and no biconditional is provable in M that would yield a corresponding definiens of

    Wild Dreams Of Reality, 3 2009

  • (If we believe in the existence of universals, then we should clearly add to the definiens ˜and universals that are exemplified by x™.)

    Ontological Dependence Lowe, E. Jonathan 2009

  • This time, substituting the definiens of (EDR) into (P2) gives us:

    Ontological Dependence Lowe, E. Jonathan 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • In Wordnik's unruly dominions

    You're free to assert your opinions.

    Invent a new word

    That no one has heard

    And you get to write the definiens.

    February 1, 2015