definitional
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The definitional creep of what we now consider middle age—pushed back, perhaps, because of the increasing delay in starting families—means that it often overlaps with the territory of old age.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 26, 2025
And because "weird" can mean so many different things, it baits those who feel attacked into dumb definitional debates.
From Salon • Aug. 2, 2024
“The goal here is to narrow these definitional issues and to present a united front to the Chinese.”
From Washington Post • May 1, 2023
The vote is in some ways definitional: What is the mission of a women’s college?
From New York Times • Mar. 14, 2023
But sublime adventurers, logically unregenerate and uninitiated, will go on sailing westward to the confusion and confounding of all definitional systems that leave them out of account.
From Creative Intelligence Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude by Bode, Boyd H.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
