Terms and Definitions,
Sense and Nonsense

According to Wikipedia, a definition is a statement of the meaning of a term, word or phrase. The term to be defined is known as the definiendum (Latin: that which is to be defined ). The words which define it are known as the definiens (Latin: that which is doing the defining ).

A definition may either give the meaning that a term bears in general use (a descriptive definition), or that which the speaker intends to impose upon it for the purpose of his or her discourse (a stipulative definition). Stipulative definitions differ from descriptive definitions in that they prescribe a new meaning either to a term already in use or to a new term. A descriptive definition can be shown to be right or wrong by comparison to usage, while a stipulative definition cannot. A stipulative definition, however, may be more or less useful. A persuasive definition , named by C.L. Stevenson, is a form of stipulative definition which purports to describe the 'true' or 'commonly accepted' meaning of a term, while in reality stipulating an altered use, perhaps as an argument for some view, for example that some system of government is democratic . Stevenson also notes that some definitions are 'legal' or 'coercive', whose object is to create or alter rights, duties or crimes.

Given that a natural language such as English contains, at any given time, a finite number of words, any comprehensive list of definitions must either be circular or leave some terms undefined. If every term of every definiens must itself be defined, where should we stop? A dictionary, for instance, in so far as it is a comprehensive list of lexical definitions, must resort to circularity.

• Awards for writers - Awards, prizes, fellowships, scholarships for journalists, writers, authors, poets, photographers.
  
• Baldness - Scalp wholly or partly lacking in hair; having a white blaze.
  
• Behaviour - The way one conducts oneself. Behaviour can be changed, but often it takes a lot of pressure or pain to induce a change in behaviour.
  
• Bull - “You must take the bull by the tail and look the facts in the face.”. (General William Westmoreland)
  
• Business Phrases - Our relations with your house must have hitherto been very pleasant. We certainly hope they will remain so; paying your bill would be most helpful in this respect.
  
• Canada Sources - Pointers to selected information sources in Canada.
  
• Canada Miscellany - Miscellaneous Canada info. Resources, Links, Pathfinders.
  
• Canadian embassies - Embassies to Canada and Canadian embassies, high commissions and consulates abroad.
  
• Canadian media by subject - Magazines, newspapers, TV, radio, ethnic publications, journals, newsletters, business press, campus media.
  
• Canadian links - Canadian magazines, newspapers, TV, radio, ethnic publications, journals, information sources, links.
  
• Censorship - “Without censorship, things can get very confused in the public mind”. (General William Westmoreland)
  
• Children/Learning or Behaviour Problems - identifying problems, finding solutions. Empathy, patience, firmness.
  
• Christianity - Believing in or following the teachings of Jesus Christ; believing that Jesus was the Son of God.
  
• Degrees - University and college credentials certifying education and/or training.
  
• Desktop publishing - Publishing services to make your printed materials look good.
  
• Diet - Nutrition and Food. Making wise food choices; eating a good diet rather than "dieting".
  
• Diets/Dieting - Intelligent eating habits that can be sustained through life.
  
• Dogs - Loveable pets but not as good as cats. If you are going to get a dog, get a mutt; purebreds tend to have more health problems. But honestly, cats are superior – ask any cat.
  
• Education - “Education: That which discloses to the wsie and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding”. (Ambrose Bierce, in The Devil's Dictionary)
  
• Flies - “Do what we can, summer will have it's flies. If we walk in the woods, we must feed the mosquitoes”. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
  
• Golf - Here were decent godless people: their only monument the asphalt road and a thousand lost golf balls (T.S. Eliot)
  
• Government - “The worst government is the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression”. (H. L. Mencken)
  
• Hair Loss - Don't it always go that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
  
• Hair Removal - Depilation. If you got it, you don't want it. If you don't have it, you want it.
  
• Hair Transplants - Relocating (transplanting) bald resistant hair follicles from the back and sides of the head (the donor areas) to a person’s bald or thinning areas.
  
• Happiness - There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn. (Samuel Johnson)
  
• Health - “The true index of a man's character is the health of his wife.” (Cyril Connolly)
  
• Health - “The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not ”. (Mark Twain)
  
• Hearing Aids - A small device to amplify sound. See also "child", which fits the definition except that it doesn't fit in the ear.
  
• Hiring/Firing - Ins and outs of employment.
  
• History of the Medical Reform Group - History of a progressive doctors’ group.
  
• Hotels - The great advantage of a hotel is that it's a refuge from home life. (George Bernard Shaw).
  
• Hurricanes - A storm with a violent wind.
  
• Impressive Phrases - The most powerful and the most perfect expression of thought and feeling through the medium of oral language must be traced to the mastery of words.
  
• Income Tax - The price we pay to have schools, health care, roads, fire departments and the other benefits of living in a community.
  
• Incorporation - A legal device by which business owners shelter themselves from responsibility for their actions.
  
• Intelligence - “Orthodoxy is the death of intelligence”. (Bertrand Russell)
  
• Iraq crisis in context - A rogue state, heavily armed with weapons of mass destruction, openly contemptuous of international law and the United Nations, and with a lengthy record of threatening and invading other countries, has plunged the world into crisis.
  
• Israel and Palestine - Web gateway to selected resources on Israel/Palestine. These resources were selected to help those who believe that a solution to the conflict is possible only on the basis of justice, mutual recognition and an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.
  
• Job-Search Information - Works well independently and as part of a team.
  
• Lotteries - A tax on the stupid.
  
• Mad - “A newspaper is not just for reporting the news at it is, but to make people mad enough to do something about it”. (Mark Twain)
  
• Marxism - From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.
  
• Music - Without music, life would be a mistake..... I would only believe in a God who knew how to dance.” (Friedrich Nietzsche)
  
• News sources - News links and resources.
  
• Newspapers - “I read the newspaper avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction ”. (Aneurin Bevin)
  
• 9/11 myths - Debunking the conspiracy theories.
  
• Obesity in Children - Both an individual clinical condition and is increasingly viewed as a serious public health problem. Excessive body weight has been shown to predispose to various diseases.
  
• 1001 Questions and Answers on Orthography and Reading - In preparing this list of questions and answers we have consulted the best authority of the present day, and believe we have gone over the ground in such a way that it will meet the approval of all interested.
  
• Online sources - Popularity is often being equated with credibility, especially by the major search engines. Caveat emptor!
  
• Organic products regulation Canada - The latest on the regulation of organic products and the regulation of organic agriculture in Canada. “The organic regulation will help put Canadian agriculture on the path towards sustainability” said Janine Gibson, COG's national President. “The regulation and the new Canada organic label will not only make it easier for Canadian consumers to identify home grown organic products, it will also create new market opportunities that will bring more farmers into the system. This is good news for both the environment and the consumer.”
  
• Pacemakers - A device implanted to provide proper heart rhythm when the body's natural pacemaker does not function properly
  
• Paris Hilton - nude photos of Paris Hilton are not available here. Sorry.
  
• Nude Photos - Britney Spears nude photos are not available here either. Sorry again.
  
• Nymphomanic - Someone who has more sex than you. (Attributed to Alfred Kinsey).
  
• Payday Loans - Another way in which the poor are ripped off.
  
• People Finder - The place to find media contacts with expertise in a wide range of topics.
  
• Pets - Cats are best, of course, but dogs are loveable too.
  
• Politically correct - A term used to disparage those who dislike racism, sexism, discrimination, or injustice. (Ulli Diemer).
  
• Pollution - “It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it ”. ([former] U.S. Vice-President Dan Quayle)
  
• PR Definition - Managing communication between an organization and its key publics.
  
• Pregnancy - The carrying of one or more offspring in an embryonal or fetal stage of development by female mammals, including humans, inside their bodies.
  
• Psychics - Para-review investigates parapathology. The proven use of trickery is of no concern to the scientists who have investigated Uri Geller. In fact, they have constructed another “scientific rule” that actually justifies it. According to them, the psychic, because of his need to be trusted, feels compelled to cheat whenever he can. In other words, when he does tricks without being caught cheating, they are proof he is psychic. And when he is caught, that's also proof he is psychic.
  
• Public speaking phrases - Had I time for all that might be said you'd be sitting there bored out of your minds.
  
• Real Estate - Land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings.
  
• Recherche - “The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not ”. (Mark Twain)
  
• Resorts - Journalismus trägt zur öffentlichen Meinungsbildung bei. Er wird deshalb oft als vierte Gewalt im Staat bezeichnet).
  
• Reverse Mortgages - A loan available to seniors used to release the home equity in the property as one lump sum or multiple payments. The homeowner's obligation to repay the loan is deferred until the owner dies, the home is sold, or the owner leaves (i.e. into aged care).
  
• Sequential problem solving - Written for those with a whole brain thinking style.
  
• Shopping Cart Software - Electronic shopping.
  
• Single payer health care system - Opponents of Canada's medicare have launched a sustained ideological attack on medicare. Their propaganda relies on myths and misrepresentations.
  
• Skills Training - The act or process of teaching or learning a skill.
  
• Skin Care Products - Oils, soaps, and stuff.
  
• Socialist links - Selected links for resources about socialism.
  
• Software - See also bugs, viruses, spyware.
  
• SourcesAlert.ca - Highlight quarterly reports, announce new products, new services, boast about your organization's accomplishments. Trust Sources to get the word out!
  
• SourcesCanada.com - More than 20 daily newspapers are scanned for selections to add to the nearly 3,000 current files on topics of interest
  
• SourcesCanada.net - More than 1,000 outside online databases also can be accessed through the Library.
  
• SourcesCanada.org - Plus de 1.000 bases de données en ligne d'extérieur peuvent également être accédées par la bibliothèque.
  
• SourcesOnline.ca - Online information.
  
• SourcesSelect.ca - A selection of select sources.
  
• SourceWatch.ca - Despite automation, the important past is still largely locked in print.
  
• Sports - As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport. (Shakespeare: King Lear)
  
• Taxes - “Only the little people pay taxes.” (Leona Helmsley: addressed to her housekeeper, and reported at her trial for tax evasion)
  
• Television - The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little. (Ray Bradbury)
  
• Travel Agents - Useful when you want to book a trip, at least if you find a good one.
  
• Useful phrases - A litte dated, perhaps, but useful to get a sense of how people used to speak in formal settings.
  
• Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) - Maybe one day, but not yet.
  
• Weather - Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. (John Ruskin)
  
• Why do people who know the least know it the loudest?”. (George Carlin)
  
• White Pages - Directories and listings.
  
• Wikipedia - A multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project.
  
• Wikis - A collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it
  
• Working at Home - Watch out for work-at-home schemes.
  
• Writers' resources - Articles, reviews, other resources for writers.

Nonsense is an utterance or written text in what appears to be a human language or other symbolic system, that does not in fact carry any identifiable meaning. The problem lies in the discernment. Distinguishing meaningful utterances from nonsense is not a trivial task. Confronted with a lengthy text in an unknown script , how does one determine whether those characters in fact contained a meaningful text, or were simply set using the equivalent of printer's pi or a lorem ipsum -style text?

The problem is important in cryptography and other intelligence fields, where it is important to distinguish signal from noise . Cryptanalysts have devised algorithms for this purpose, to determine whether a given text is in fact nonsense or not. These algorithms typically analyze the presence of repetitions and redundancy in a text; in meaningful texts, certain frequently used words—for example, the , is , and and in a text in the English language —will occur over and over again. A random scattering of letters, punctuation marks, and spaces will not exhibit these regularities. Zipf's Law attempts to state this analysis in the language of mathematics. By contrast, cryptographers typically seek to make their cipher texts resemble random distributions, to avoid telltale repetitions and patterns that may give an opening for cryptanalysis.

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