Using Precise Words
Common words such as play or run frequently have many meanings. For example the WordNet database documents over 57 different distinct meanings for the word "play" but only a single definition for the term dramatic play. Fewer definitions in a chosen word's dictionary entry is preferable. This minimizes misinterpretation related to a reader's context and background. The process of finding a good meaning of a word is called Word sense disambiguation.
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Famous quotes containing the words precise and/or words:
“Among the laws controlling human societies there is one more precise and clearer, it seems to me, than all the others. If men are to remain civilized or to become civilized, the art of association must develop and improve among them at the same speed as equality of conditions spreads.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“‘But they are dead; those two are dead!
Their spirits are in heaven!’
‘Twas throwing words away; for still
The little maid would have her will,
And said, ‘Nay, we are seven!’”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)