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A circular definition is one that assumes a prior understanding of the term being defined. By using the term(s) being defined as a part of the definition, a circular definition provides no new or useful information; either the audience already knows the meaning of the term(s), or the definition is deficient in including the term(s) to be defined in the definition itself. If someone wants to know what a cellular phone is, telling them that it is a "phone that is cellular" will not be especially illuminating, nor is defining dialectical materialism as "materialism that is dialectical". For another example, we can define "oak" as a tree which has catkins and grows from an acorn, and then define "acorn" as the nut produced by an oak tree. To someone not knowing either which trees are oaks or which nuts are acorns, the definition is fairly useless. Cellular redirects here. ...
According to many followers of the theories of Karl Marx (or Marxists), dialectical materialism is the philosophical basis of Marxism. ...
Species See List of Quercus species The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of several hundred species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus (from Latin oak tree), and some related genera, notably Cyclobalanopsis and Lithocarpus. ...
The coniferous Coast Redwood, the tallest tree species on earth. ...
A male catkin on a willow a male flowering catkin on a willow Catkins, or aments, are slim, cylindrical flower clusters, wind-pollinated (anemophilous) and without petals, that can be found in many plant families, including Betulaceae, Fagaceae, Moraceae, and Salicaceae. ...
For other uses, see Nut (disambiguation). ...
Look up definition in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
A circular definition occurred in an early definition of the kilogram. The kilogram was originally defined as the mass of one liter of water at standard pressure and the temperature at which it is densest (which is about 4°C). The unit of pressure is the Newton per square meter, where a Newton is the force that accelerates one kilogram one meter per second squared. Thus the kilogram was defined in terms of itself. To clear up any confusion, the kilogram was later defined as the mass of a certain piece of metal in Sèvres. “Kg†redirects here. ...
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
The liter (spelled liter in American English and litre in Commonwealth English) is a unit of volume. ...
Impact from a water drop causes an upward rebound jet surrounded by circular capillary waves. ...
Temperature and air pressure can vary from one place to another on the Earth, and can also vary in the same place with time. ...
This article is about pressure in the physical sciences. ...
In physics, the newton (symbol: N) is the SI unit of force, named after Sir Isaac Newton in recognition of his work on classical mechanics. ...
The metre, or meter (symbol: m) is the SI base unit of length. ...
Road to Sèvres, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, 1855-1865. ...
A circular definition also crept into the classic definition of death that was once "the permanent cessation of the flow of vital bodily fluids", which raised the question "what makes a fluid vital?"
A branch of mathematics called non-well-founded set theory allows for the construction of circular sets. Circular sets are good for modelling cycles and, despite the field's name, this area of mathematics is well founded. Computer science allows for procedures to be defined by using recursion—such definitions are not circular as long as they terminate. Non-well founded set theories are variants of axiomatic set theory which allow sets to contain themselves and otherwise violate the rule of well-foundedness. ...
Computer science, or computing science, is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ...
A visual form of recursion known as the Droste effect. ...
An example of a circular definition - See
- See "See".
Another, commonly cited example: - Recursion
- See "Recursion".
Another one, not so common: A visual form of recursion known as the Droste effect. ...
- Endless loop
- See "Loop, endless"
Once you find "Loop, endless" - Loop, endless
- See "Endless loop"
The 2007 Webster dictionary defines a "hill" and a "mountain" this way: - Hill - "1: a usually rounded natural elevation of land lower than a mountain" [1]
- Mountain - "1a: a landmass that projects conspicuously above its surroundings and is higher than a hill" [2]
This is a common example of a circular definition.
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