Redefine the way you define terms

5 ways to rethink definitions

When I was customizing an in-house writing workshop for a utility company, I wanted to see whether there was a better way to define kilowatt hour, or kWh, for consumers.

I knew that a kWh was the work performed by one kilowatt of electric power in one hour and that it was the basic measure of electric energy use.

So I Googled “define: kWh.”

That’s the first way to redefine the way you define terms: Google clearer definitions.

1. Turn Google into a dictionary.

Turns out your BFF and research assistant Google is also a rock-star dictionary.

Just type “define: term” in the search box. You’ll get a list of definitions for your term on the web.

When it came to my search for a fresh way to define kilowatt hour, as you might expect, many of the definitions weren’t very helpful. “One kilowatt hour = 3412 Btu Per hour,” for instance, didn’t move the definition forward. Nor did “The equivalent of 3,600,000 Joules.”

But I did find one helpful image: “A 100-watt lightbulb burning for 10 hours uses one kilowatt hour.”

Add an image like that to your definition, and you can paint a picture in your readers’ minds, helping them to literally “see” the technical concept.

2. Lead with the familiar term.

The traditional way for defining terms can seem patronizing and off-putting:

Unfamiliar term, familiar term,

Here’s how it works:

cyclooxygenase-1, an enzyme that’s normally present in various areas of the body,

That’s not the friendliest approach. It suggests, “Term A, which you, being a nitwit, apparently don’t understand, means term B.”

Instead, think like a reader. Bring the reader in with the term she already knows:

Familiar term, unfamiliar term,

This is a little more accessible, suggesting, “Term B, which, by the way, we geeks in accounting call term A …” Like this:

Cox-1 of the stomach produces “chemical messengers” called prostaglandins.

Here, I get “chemical messengers.” But when I see “prostaglandins” bearing down on me without warning at the beginning of the sentence, I start thinking, “I don’t want to work this hard to get this.”

When you’re writing to people who don’t need to learn your organization’s language, drop the unfamiliar term altogether:

Familiar term, unfamiliar term …

Do I really need to learn “prostaglandins” to do business with your organization? If not:

Cox-1 of the stomach produces “chemical messengers” called prostaglandins.

3. Take 4 steps to explaining, not just defining.

If you’re really trying to help people learn a new term, add a few more elements to your definition, suggests Jack Hart, author of A Writer’s Coach. Define the unfamiliar word in terms of:

1. the larger class to which it belongs
2. the way it’s different from other members of the class
3. an illustration or description

He writes:

“A jack, for example, is (a) a salmon that (b) returns to fresh water a year before it’s sexually mature and (c) looks like an adult but is much smaller.”

4. Explain, don’t just spell out, acronyms.

Don’t just spell out acronyms, as Alex Bloomberg illustrated in The Giant Pool of Money — still, all of these years later, one of the best explainers ever:

“The thing that got me interested in all this was something called a NINA loan. [A] NINA loan stands for No Income, No Assets …”

Instead, explain them:

“… as in, someone will lend you a bunch of money without first checking if you have any income or any assets.”

Then illustrate them:

Hey, now I know what NINA loans are.

Warren Buffett also knows how to illustrate and acronym.