Meaning of definition in English

definition

noun

/ˌdef.ɪˈnɪʃ.ən/ us

/ˌdef.ɪˈnɪʃ.ən/

definition noun (EXPLANATION)

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B2 [ C ]

a statement that explains the meaning of a word or phrase:

a dictionary definition

definition of What is the definition of "mood"?

[ C ]

a description of the features and limits of something:

definition of The legal definition of what is and what is not pornography is very unsatisfactory.

by definition

because of its own features:

Psychology is by definition an inexact science.

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In this bookdefinitions are printed in roman.
The definition of 'antique' varies between "100 years old" and "made before the turn of the century".
Double click on any word on the screen to see its definition.
They couldn't agree on a universally acceptable definition of 'Marxism'.
Each country has its own definition of the terms 'asylum seeker' and 'refugee'.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Reasons and explanations

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definition noun (CLEAR QUALITY)

C1 [ U ]

how clear an image or sound is:

The photograph lacks definition.

[ U ] sports specialized

the fact that separate muscles in a person's or animal's body can be clearly seen through their skin:

After a few weeks my muscles started to get more definition.

She was working out three or four times a weekhad more energy and some definition in her muscles.

In bodybuildingdefinition - that dramatic separation of every muscle group that looks as though it has been carved by a sculptor's chisel - is of huge importance.

muscle definition I have some muscle definition nowand I can actually do push-ups.

He is tallwith a lot of muscle definition.

In the show ring animals are positioned in the best way to display their muscle definition.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Photography

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You can also find related wordsphrasesand synonyms in the topics:

The body

Exercising & training

(Definition of definition from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

definition | American Dictionary

definition

noun

/ˌdef·əˈnɪʃ·ən/

definition noun (EXPLANATION)

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[ C ] English

a statement that explains the meaning of a word or phrase:

What is the definition of “mood”?

definition noun (SEEING CLEARLY)

[ U ]

the degree to which something can be clearly seen or heard:

The tape recorded conversation lacked definition – there was too much background noise.

Idiom

by definition

(Definition of definition from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of definition

definition

Here we just recall the basic definitions to prevent confusion.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Such definitions are problematic in at least three ways.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To fix ideas and put the mathematical background in placewe start with some formal definitions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The proof is a routine diagram paste based on the definitions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We will begin by introducing a few basic definitions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The results show that both definitions give the same parametric dependence.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Moreoverwith such definitionsequational reasoning is not easy and leads to very large proof terms.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Then we check that our definitions are well-given.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The only non-trivial case concerns the operation of functional composition; proofs for the other high-level operations can be obtained easily by applying the semantic definitions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Before proceedingwe will recall some definitions from lattice theory.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

On the rare occasions where we present definitions out of sequencewe will explain what we are doing.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The purpose of these expressions is to give us some additional control over the evaluation of subexpressions when writing definitions of the above form.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The induction base is the first case in both definitions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To introduce this kind of domainwe need the following definitions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A few salient definitions and facts for general categories will be provided now.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

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