A definition is a statement that explains the meaning of a term (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols).

[1] The term to be defined is thedefiniendum. The term may have many different senses and multiple meanings. For each meaning, a definiens is a cluster of words that defines that term (and clarifies the speaker's intention). As an example: To successfully define the word "Vegan", the definiendum (the word "Vegan" itself) must be given a definiens (actually vegan has at least two definiens: One is "someone who avoids using animal products", and another definiens is "someone from a place called Vega, Norway"). A definition will vary in aspects like precision or popularity (e.g. globally, the word "Vegan" rarely refers to the definiens "someone fromVega, Norway"). There are also different types of definitions with different purposes and focuses (e.g. intensional, extensional, descriptive,stipulative, and so on). A chief difficulty in the management of definitions is the necessity of using other terms that are already understood or whose definitions are easily obtainable or demonstrable (e.g. a need, sometimes, for ostensive definitions). A dictionary definition typically contains additional details about a word, such as an etymology and the language or languages of its origin, or obsolete meanings.