2006-09-03 12:08:27 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
What I really hate is when they use another form of the word to define the word you are looking up.
2006-09-03 12:10:43 · answer #1 · answered by me 1 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Technically it is impossible to write a dictionary by using only words which have been previously defined. What do you suppose the first definition would be and what would it say?
A "fun game" (at least I view it as a fun game) I'm working on is trying to write a dictionary using as few undefined words as possible. Its amazingly difficult. I've probably worked at it for 20 hours+ and have barely got anywere. That said, it causes me to learn a lot so I like doing it.
That said, I agree that dictionaries do this many times more than they should. When this happens I do what Faerie suggested in her answer: you look up the word(s) in the definition that you don't understand. In the past I've had to do this about five times for just one definition at dictionary.com. Another strategy is to look in a Thesaurus and read how the synonym words are defined.
2006-09-03 20:33:09 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
That does suck. I don't always have a dictionary close by so when I am in a hurry, I go to MS Word and type the word I don't know and right click on the word. Then I go to synonyms. It comes up with a few different synonyms to the word and you can usually figure out what it means that way...
Hope that helps.
2006-09-03 19:16:46 · answer #3 · answered by googi 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
You have a dictionary in front of you. You can always look up that word. That's what my dad used to tell me. And now it's even easier because all you have to do is type it in rather then turning pages to find it.
2006-09-03 20:19:27 · answer #4 · answered by FaerieWhings 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
the best way to go about figuring out what a word means without using a dictionary is to figure out what the root of a word would mean and what any prefixes of suffixes mean. then if you dont understand what the root of the word means go to the dictionary (or just go on yahoo answers ;) )
2006-09-03 19:13:34 · answer #5 · answered by personkid 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
what i hate is checking a word to find another word i don't understand and then, going in rounds, JUST to come back to the same word!
2006-09-04 06:04:46 · answer #6 · answered by tombraider 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
yeah, the only thing worse than that is when a definition uses the SAME word you don't know to explain the word you don't know (which actually is a logical fallacy)
2006-09-03 19:57:09 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Geee
I hate to tell you of a "hapax legomenon"
2006-09-04 04:41:13 · answer #8 · answered by Gemelli2 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yep!!
Goddess Bless!
2006-09-03 19:11:22 · answer #9 · answered by crazygodddesss 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It never bothers me....cause finally I get the meaning with lots of synonyms
2006-09-03 19:25:10 · answer #10 · answered by visitaci_sempre 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋