What is a definition?

TERM	is/are	CATEGORY	LINK	unique in some way
Crabs	are	large crustaceans	which	walk sideways
Dogs	are	domestic animals	that	were bred from wolves
“Dog”	refers to	domestic animals	which were	bred from wolves
Akita	is a kind of	Japanese Dog	,	made famous by Hachiko.
Happiness	is a form of	emotional state	caused by	eating chocolate
Happiness	can be defined as	an emotional state	which results from	eating chocolate
The word “dreich”	is a	Scottish term	which describes	cold, grey, dark, miserable weather.

When to use a definition

• In a description paragraph
• Maybe the Introduction, if you don’t use it in Description.
• If you are using a normal word in a special way
  • Happiness is defined here as the emotional state which results from eating chocolate
  • Happiness is here used to mean a score of 5 or higher on the self-assessment Satisfaction scale
  • Happiness is operationalised as balance between positive and negative emotion (Ryff, 1989)

Tips to help you understand

• A good definition defines ONLY ONE thing
  • “Tea is a soft drink made with hot water.” is not good
  • “Tea is a soft drink made from the leaves of Camellia Sinensis.”
• Think of it as a reverse quiz question:
  • Bad Question: What is a soft drink made with hot water?
  • Answer: Um… Tea? Coffee? Hot lemon?
  • Good Question: What is a soft drink made from the leaves of Camellia Sinensis?
  • Answer: Tea
• Look at the first sentence or two of any Wikipedia article - it is usually a definition
  • Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79.
  • Paper is a thin material produced by pressing together moist fibres…
  • Economics is the social science that describes the factors that determine …

Common mistakes

• Con’t copy a definition from a dictionary”. Do you own research.
• Don’t define obvious things. We know what gold is. Maybe define CONFLICT gold instead.
• Don’t define things with words from the name “The Malaysian tiger is a tiger from Malaysia”