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A '''definition''' is a meaning that uses a word or a phrase to mark off the conceptual limits of what a thing is.

A '''definition''' is a verbal [[meaning]], in the form of a [[phrase]], between a [[word]] (except a [[proper noun]]) and its presumed object, by means of marking off the conceptual limits by intersection of genus (logical group) and species (characteristic instance of difference) and by taking the [[essence|essentials]] and the [[property|properties]] ''for'' and dividing off the [[accident|accidental]] circumstances ''from'' the verbalizations to which the meaning belongs, in order to make the thought and "thing" (object) adequate for each other as the measure of the definition's correctness.

A definition of a name (''definitio nominis'') sets a clear value for a [[word]] or [[phrase]] so that the parties involved will definitely know what that word/phrase means when they talk about the word/phrase.  It is a common establishment not only in [[language]], but also in [[logic]] and [[mathematics]].  For example, ''I call soul that which is the principle of thought within us''.

A definition of a name (''definitio nominis'') sets a clear value for a [[Word|word]] or [[Phrase|phrase]] so that the parties involved will definitely know what that word/phrase means when they talk about the word/phrase.  It is a common establishment not only in [[language]], but also in [[logic]] and [[mathematics]].  For example, ''I call soul that which is the principle of thought within us''.

A definition of a thing (''definitio rei'') is the maintenance that other ideas are contained in a certain term (assuming common usage) referring to a thing.  For example, ''Man is a rational animal''.<ref name=p78>Arnauld, Antoine (1662).  ''Logic or the Art of Thinking: Being The Port Royal Logic''. Ed. and trans. T. S. Baynes.  London: W. Blackwood, 1850 (''La logique ou l'art de penser; contenant outre les règles communes, plusieurs observations nouvelles, propres à former le jugement'', Paris), pp. 78-9.</ref>

A definition of a thing (''definitio rei'') is the maintenance that other ideas are contained in a certain term, assuming common usage, referring to a thing. For example, ''Man is a rational animal''.<ref>Arnauld, Antoine (1662).  ''Logic or the Art of Thinking: Being The Port Royal Logic''.  Ed. and trans. T. S. Baynes.  London: W. Blackwood, 1850 (''La logique ou l'art de penser; contenant outre les règles communes, plusieurs observations nouvelles, propres à former le jugement'', Paris).</ref>

 

A definition of a name is ''arbitrary''; it can choose one narrower definition of a word extracted from a broader commonly used definition, assign a word an analogous meaning, give a word an entirely new meaning, or even apply itself to an entirely new word.  The ideas employed in a definition of a thing on the other hand are not arbitrary but must apply themselves to comprehending their object and to the extent that they fail to do so, they must be redetermined.<ref name=p78/>

 

 

Many words have multiple definitions of similar connotation, such as [[line]].<ref>''Merriam-Webster's Third International Dictionary''.  1960.</ref> A line can refer to a finite group of people in a row or a stripe of paint along the highway,<ref>''The American College Dictionary.'' Random House.  New York, 1956</ref> but in geometry, it refers strictly to an infinite mass of one dimension which can exist in other dimensions.<ref>"1.2: Points, Lines, and Planes." Beauty, Rigor, Surprise.</ref> The definition in geometry would be its academic definition.

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