Reason
A definition explains the meaning of a word.
Imagine, you cannot remember a certain word or you use a word that
another person does not know. What can you do? Exactly, you can explain
what you mean. So it is in fact really handy to know a bit about
definitions.
How can I define a word?
Describe (the most common form of definitions)Think
of a more general word and then specify how this term is different from
other terms that belong to this group. Example: dogA more general term? – animal. And how are dogs different from other animals? They bark. So our definition could be:
A dog is an animal that barks.
Name a few examplesThink of typical examples. Example: month Can you think of any examples for months? – e.g. January, May, December. So our definition could be:
January, May and December are months.
Name the componentsThink of the components the term consists of. Example: Irish coffeeWhat does an Irish Coffee consist of? – coffee, whiskey and sugar. So our definition could be:
An Irish coffee consists of coffee, whiskey and sugar.
Important Grammar Aspects
The tense you usually use for definitions is the simple present(facts in the present). To describe words, relative clauses are quite useful.
Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:41 pm by 
Subject: Definitions 
