The problem of circular definitions

Here is an example of a circular definition. The word easy is used to define difficult, and the word difficult is used to define easy:

• difficult = Not easy.
• easy = Not difficult.

Here is another example. If you do not already know any of these words (illness, sick, sickness), you will not get a helpful explanation of what they mean from these circular definitions:

• illness = Sickness of body or mind.
• sick = Suffering from an illness.
• sickness = The condition of being sick.

Most dictionaries contain thousands of circular definitions like these, especially for the most basic words. This may not be a problem for someone who already has a large vocabulary, but circular definitions are frustrating for beginning-level learners.

The Learn These Words First dictionary is structured in a new way to eliminate circular definitions. The 360 words in the lessons are arranged in an order that allows each new word to be explained using only words that were explained earlier in the lessons. The rest of the words in the dictionary are defined using only the 360 words from the lessons. A computer program was used to check that the lessons and definitions contain no circular definitions.

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