defining

American  

[dih-fahy-ning] / dɪˈfaɪ nɪŋ /

adjective

1. decisive; critically important.

   Taking a course in architecture was a defining turn in her life.

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Other Word Forms

• nondefining
  adjective
• self-defining
  adjective

Explanation

Something defining is essential to what something is. A defining moment in your life helps makes you what you are. In the dictionary, definitions tell you what words mean, and the similar word defining has to do with what things are too. The defining characteristic of a chair is that you sit on it. The defining feature of food is you can eat it. People have defining features too: if you went to a summer camp and had an amazing time, it could be a defining time in your life. Defining things helps shape and mold us.

Example Sentences

They are structural, and a defining feature of his policies, his view of democracy and society, and his relationship to the American people and the world.

From Salon • May 26, 2026

Geordie singer Fender accepted the prestigious prize, with officials saying he had become one of "the defining voices in modern British music and storytelling".

From BBC • May 21, 2026

Start by capturing a defining moment that reveals your core character.

From MarketWatch • May 19, 2026

Using only these assumptions, the team showed that the resulting mathematics naturally reproduced the defining characteristics of string theory, including its famous spectrum of particle masses and spins.

From Science Daily • May 19, 2026

Outdoors was the end of something, an irrevocable, physical fact, defining and complementing our metaphysical condition.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison