I. Th e following exercises deal with words and terms.

1. Determine which of the following words or groups of words are terms and
which are non terms.
extortion Thomas Jeff erson
laborious Empire State Building
cunningly annoy
practitioner r ender satisfactory. seriousness graceful dancer
forever wake up whoever studies not only
interestingly impassive tallest man on the squad
scarlet mountaintop
reinvestment between
therefore since
2. Name some of the attributes connoted by the following terms.
Express your answer with adjectives or adjectival phrases. Example: The term
“elephant” connotes the attributes of being large, having tusks, having a trunk.drum
wolf fanatic riot politician Mona Lisa carrot piano devil Statue of Liberty
3. Name three items denoted by the terms in the following left -hand column and
all items denoted by the terms in the right-hand column.newspaper tallest
mountain on earth
scientist prime number less than 101manufacturer governor of New York river
language of Canada opera Scandinavian country
4. Put the following sequences of terms in the order of increasing intension:
★a. conifer, Sitka spruce, tree, spruce, plant
b. Italian sports car, car, vehicle, Maserati, sports car
c. doctor of medicine, person, brain surgeon, professional person, surgeon
d. wallaby, marsupial, mammal, animal, kangaroo
e. parallelogram, polygon, square, rectangle, quadrilateral

5. CONSTRUCT A SERIES OF FOUR TERMS THAT EXHIBITS INCREASING

INTENSION BUT NONDECREASING EXTENSION.

II. Answer “true” or “false” to the following statements:

1. All words have an intensional meaning and an extensional meaning.

2. Th e intensional meaning of a term consists of the attributes connoted by the

term.
3. The extensional meaning of a term consists of the members of the class denoted
by the term.
4. Th e extension of a term always remains the same with the passage of time.
5. Some terms have empty intension.
6. Some terms have empty extension.
 7. Th e intension of a term determines the extension.
8. Th e intension of a term determines how specifi c the term is.
9. The order of increasing intension is always the same as that of decreasing
extension.
10. “Leprechaun” and “unicorn” have the same extension.2
III. Answer “true” or “false” to the following statements:
1. From the standpoint of logic, many definitions are concerned not with words but
with things.
2. Th e definiendum is the word or term that is supposed to be defi ned.
3. The definiens is the word or group of words that assigns a meaning to the
word being defi ned.
4. A stipulative defi nition is either true or false.
5. A lexical defi nition reports the way a word is actually used in a language.
6. One of the purposes of a lexical defi nition is to guard against the ambiguous use
of a word.
7. Th e meaning given to a word by a precising defi nition is completely arbitrary.
8. Theoretical definitions are either true or false, just as are lexical defi nitions.
9. Th eoretical defi nitions provide a theoretical characterization of the entity or
entities denoted by the word being defi ned.
10. Th e purpose of a persuasive defi nition is to infl uence attitudes2
I. Determine whether the following defi nitions are stipulative, lexical, precising,
theoretical, or persuasive.
★1. “Blind” means, for federal income tax purposes, either the inability to see
better than 20/200 in the better eye with glasses or having a fi eld of vision of 20
degrees or less.
2. “Football” means a sport in which modern-day gladiators brutalize one another
while trying to move a ridiculously shaped “ball” from one end of the playing fi eld
to the other.
3. “Glasstooth” means an electronic device worn like a pair of glasses that instantly
fl ashes text messages to the recipient.
★4. “Diffident” means lacking confidence in oneself; characterized by modest
reserve.
5. “Magnetism” means a property of certain substances such as iron, cobalt, and
nickel that arises from the spin of the electrons in the unfi lled inner shell of the
atoms that compose the substance.
6. “Fiduciary” means having to do with a confidence or trust; a person who
holds something in trust.
7. “Politician” means a person of unquestioned honesty and integrity whom the
people, in their collective wisdom, have duly elected to guide the ship of state and
protect it from the reefs and shoals that threaten it on every side.
8. “Intoxicated,” for purposes of driving a car in many states, means having a
blood-alcohol content of 0.1 percent (.001) or greater.
9. “Femikin” means a female manikin.
10. “Sound” means a compression wave, in air or some other elastic medium,
having a frequency ranging (for humans) from 20 to 20,000 vibrations per second.
 11. “Radioactive area” means, for purposes of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, any area accessible to individuals in which there exists radiation at
such levels that a major portion of the body could receive in any one hour a dose in
excess of 5 millirems or in any fi ve consecutive days a dose in excess of 100
millirems.
12. “Neurosis” means a chronic emotional disturbance that arises from suppressed
or forgotten emotional stress (such as resentment, hostility, aggression, or guilt)
experienced in early childhood.

13. “Petrograb” means invading a country to steal its oil.

14. “Smoker” means a rude and disgusting individual who callously emits noxious tobacco
fumes into the air, threatening the health and comfort of everyone in the vicinity.

15. “Diadem” means an ornamental headband worn as a badge of royalty; a crown.

16. “Psychiatry” means the fortuitous melding of modern medicine with psychgy that promises
relief to thousands of poor, desperate souls who suff er the

pains of emotional disorder.

17. “Gene” means the hereditary unit that occupies a fi xed chromosomal locus,
which through transcription has a specifi c eff ect on phenotype and which can
mutate to various allelic forms.
18. “Ramster” means an animal produced by crossbreeding a rat with a hamster.
19. “Intractable” means not easily governed; obstinate; unruly; not disposed to be
taught.3

20. “Recession” means, for purposes of the National Bureau of Economic Research, two
consecutive quarters of negative growth in real GNP or in aggregate output for the entire
economy.

21. “Gravity” means a force that results from the universal attraction that every
particle of matter has for every other particle, and which varies directly with the
mass of the particles and inversely with the square of the distance between them.
22. “Assault” means, for legal purposes, an intentional and unprivileged act
resulting in the apprehension of an immediate harmful or off ensive contact.
23. “Television” means the electronic medium that keeps an entire nation of
viewers in a state of seminarcosis by feeding them a steady stream of inane drivel.
24. “Obelisk” means an upright, four-sided pillar that terminates in a pyramid; a
dagger.
25. “Bimboy” means a boy who is a
 I. Determine whether the following are demonstrative definitions, enumerative defi nitions, defi nitions
by subclass, synonymous defi nitions, etymological defi nitions, operational defi nitions, or defi nitions
by genus and diff erence.

1. “Plant” means something such as a tree, a fl ower, a vine, or a cactus.

2. “Hammer” means a tool used for pounding.
3. A triangle is “equilateral” if and only if a compass, when placed sequentially on
two vertices and properly adjusted, strikes through the other two vertices.
4. “State” means something such as Ohio, Arkansas, Minnesota, and Tennessee.
5. “Angel” is a word that originates from the Greek word angelos, which means
messenger.
6. “Neophyte” means beginner.
7. “House” means this:
8. “Painting” means something like da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, van Gogh’s Starry
Night, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, or Rembrandt’s Night Watch4
9. “Dessert” means something such as pie, cake, cookies, or ice-cream sundaes.
10. “Hot” means, for an electric iron, that your wetted fi nger sizzles when placed
momentarily in contact with it.
11. “Universe” originates from the Latin word universus, which means whole or
entire.
12. “Mountain” means something such as Everest, Rainier, Whitney, or McKinley.
13. “Hurricane” means a storm having constant winds of at least 74 miles per hour
that originates at sea.
14. A substance is “translucent” if and only if when held up to a strong light some
of the light comes through.
15. “Insect” means something such as a fl y, an ant, a wasp, or a caterpillar.
16. “Poignant” is a word derived from the Latin word pungere, which means to
prick, pierce, or sting.
17. “Facade” means face.
18. “Prime number” means a number greater than one that is divisible only by itself
and one.
19. “Language” means something such as French, German, Spanish, orEnglish.
20. “Tree” means this, and this, and this (as you point to several trees).
21. “Oak” means a tree that bears acorns.
22. “Rapier” means sword.
23. An “electric current” fl ows in a circuit if and only if an ammeter connected in
series with the circuit shows a reading.
24. “Philosopher” means someone such as Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, or Kant.
25. “Professional person” means a person such as a doctor, a lawyer, a professor, or
an architect.
26. “Error” means mistake.
27. “Tale” is a word that derives from the Old English word talu, which means talk.
28. “Truck” means a vehicle used for hauling.
 29. “Done” means, in reference to a baking cake, that a wooden toothpick poked
into the center comes out clean.
30. “Musical composition” means something such as a symphony, a concerto, a
sonata, or a toccata.
II. Th e following exercises involve constructing
definitions.
1. Construct a partial enumerative defi nition for the following terms by naming
three members of the class the term denotes. Then find a nonsynonymous term
that these members serve equally well to defi ne. Example: “Poet” means a person
such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, or Shelley. A nonsynonymous term is “Englishman.”
a. skyscraper
b. corporation5island
d. composer
e. novel

2. Construct a complete enumerative defi nition for the following terms:

a. ocean
b. continent
3. Construct a defi nition by subclass for the following terms by naming three
subclasses of the class the term denotes. Th en fi nd a nonsynonymous term
that these subclasses serve equally well to defi ne.
★a. animal
b. fish
c. vehicle
d. gemstone
e. polygon
4. Construct a complete defi nition by subclass for the following terms:
a. quadrilateral
b. circulating American coin
5. Construct synonymous defi nitions for the following terms:
★a. intersection
b. fabric
c. nucleus
d. abode
e. wedlock
f. cellar
g. summit
h. apparel
6. Construct operational defi nitions for the following words:
★a. genius
b. ferromagnetic
c. fl uorescent
d. alkaline
e. polarized (light)
 7. Construct defi nitions by genus and diff erence for the following terms. In each
definition identify the genus term.
★a. drake
b. biologist
c. felony6
d. widow
e. library
8. Consult a dictionary to fi nd the etymological roots of the following words, and
then explain how they relate to the conventional meaning of these words.
★a. morphology
b. isomorphic
c. isotropic
d. phototropic
e. photography
f. lithography
g. lithology
h. psychology
III. Answer “true” or “false” to the following statements:
1. The technique of extensional definition may be used to produce precising
definitions.
2. The technique of extensional defi nition may be used to produce stipulative and
lexical defi nitions.
3. Most extensional defi nitions convey the precise intensional meaning of a term.
4. An intensional defi nition conveys the meaning of a term by indicating the
members of the class the term denotes.
5. In a synonymous defi nition the defi niens must be a single word.
6. Th e technique of synonymous defi nition may be used to construct precising
definitions.

7. Operational defi nitions typically convey the entire intensional meaning of a word.

8. Th e species is a subclass of the genus.

9. Th e specifi c diff erence is an attribute or set of attributes that identifi es a species.

10. Defi nition by genus and diff erence may be used to produce stipulative, lexical,
precising, theoretical, and persuasive defi nitions.6

Criticize the following defi nitions in light of the eight rules for lexical defi nitions:

★1. A sculpture is a three-dimensional image made of marble.

2. “Elusory” means elusive.

3. “Birdie” means sinking the ball in one stroke under par.

★4. A cynic is a person who knows the price of everything and the value of

nothing.

5. “Semantics” is when somebody studies words.

6. “iPod” means a handheld electronic device having a single click-wheel on one side.

★7. A theist is anyone who is not an atheist or an agnostic.

8. “Intelligence” means whatever is measured by an IQ test.

9. A symphony is a musical piece written for full orchestra.

★10. Feminism is a militant movement originated by a group of deviant women for
the purpose of undermining the natural distinction between the sexes.
11. “Wood” means fi brous, lignifi ed cellulose.
12. Logic is the study of arguments including defi nitions.
★13. “Truculent” is if you’re cruel or fierce. 7
14. A house is a structure made of wood or stone intended for human habitation.
15. Satire is a kind of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s
face but their own.
★16. A carpenter’s square is a square used by a carpenter.
17. “Safety” means a play in which a player grounds the ball behind his own goal
line when the ball was caused to cross the goal line by his own team.
18. Puberty: the time in life in which the two sexes begin fi rst to be acquainted.

★19. “Normal” means an attribute possessed by people who are able to get on in the
world.

20. An organic substance is any substance that is not inorganic.

21. Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.

★22. “Schooner” means sort of like a sailboat.

23. “Faith” means reason succumbing to insecurity.

24. “Gammon” means, in backgammon, a victory in which one player defeats

another before he can remove any of his men from the board.

★25. A cello is a stringed musical instrument played with a bow.

26. Tobacco is a plant grown in the southeastern United States that, when enjoyed

in the form of cigars and cigarettes, produces a most delightful and satisfying

taste and aroma.

27. History is the unfolding of miscalculations.

★28. “Clock” means a manufactured device featuring two pointers that rotate past

a set of numerals ranging from 1 to 12.

29. “Soap” means saponifi ed glyceride.

30. Mackerel: a sea-fish.

★31. “Anchorperson” means an electronic media guru who has great looks but

less- than-average intelligence and who brings canned news to people incapable of reading
a newspaper.

32. “Diet” means like when you cut back on your calories.

33. Animal: a living creature corporeal, distinct, on the one side, from pure spirit,

on the other, from pure matter.

★34. “Pen” means an instrument used for writing on paper.

35. Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from grapes8