Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing or printing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or of a combination of morphemes.
- noun Something said; an utterance, remark, or comment.
- noun A command or direction; an order.
- noun An assurance or promise; sworn intention.
- noun A verbal signal; a password or watchword.
- noun Discourse or talk; speech.
- noun Music The text of a vocal composition; lyrics.
- noun Hostile or angry remarks made back and forth.
- noun News.
- noun Rumor.
- noun Used euphemistically in combination with the initial letter of a term that is considered offensive or taboo or that one does not want to utter.
- noun The Scriptures; the Bible.
- noun Computers A set of bits that is of a fixed size and is typically operated on by a computer's processor.
- transitive verb To express in words.
- interjection Slang Used to express approval or an affirmative response to something. Sometimes used with up.
- idiom (at a word) In immediate response.
- idiom (good word) A favorable comment.
- idiom (good word) Favorable news.
- idiom (have a word with) To have a brief conversation with (someone); speak to.
- idiom (have no words for) To be unable to describe or talk about.
- idiom (in a word) In short; in summary.
- idiom (in so many words) In precisely those words; exactly.
- idiom (in so many words) Speaking candidly and straightforwardly.
- idiom (of few words) Not conversational or loquacious; laconic.
- idiom (of (one's) word) Displaying personal dependability.
- idiom (take at (someone's) word) To be convinced of another's sincerity and act in accord with his or her statement.
- idiom (take (someone's) word for it) To believe what someone says without investigating further.
- idiom (upon my word) Indeed; really.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An erroneous form of
ord . - To express in words; phrase.
- To ply with or overpower by words; talk.
- To flatter; cajole.
- To make or unmake by a word or command.
- To speak; talk; converse; discourse.
- noun A sound, or combination of sounds, used in any language as the sign of a conception, or of a conception together with its grammatical relations; the smallest bit of human language forming a grammatical part of speech; a vocable; a term.
- noun The letter or letters or other characters, written or printed, which represent such a vocable: as, a word misprinted.
- noun Speech; talk; discourse; conversation: commonly in the plural.
- noun Saying; remark; expression: as, a word of comfort or sympathy; a word of reproach.
- noun A symbol of thought, as distinguished from thought itself; sound as opposed to sense.
- noun Intelligence; information; tidings; report: without an article, and used only as a singular: as, to send word of one's arrival.
- noun An expression of will or decision; an injunction; command; order.
- noun A password; a watchword; a war-cry; a signal, or term of recognition, even when consisting of several words.
- noun A brief or pithy remark or saying; a proverb; a motto.
- noun Affirmation; promise; obligation; good faith; a term or phrase implying or containing an assertion, declaration, assurance, or the like, which involves the faith or honor of the utterer of it: with a possessive: as, I pledge you my word; on my word, sir.
- noun Utterances or terms interchanged expressive of anger, contention, or reproach: in the plural, and often qualified by high, hot, hard, sharp, or the like.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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There is an important and very common use of the word ˜word™ that lexicographers and the rest of us use frequently.
Types and Tokens Wetzel, Linda 2006
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Use an underscore before and after a word to show it in italics. _word
Get GMail Invites on U.S. Cell Phones Chirayu 2005
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Use an asterix before and after a word to make it bold. *word*
Get GMail Invites on U.S. Cell Phones Chirayu 2005
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Do not make the last word of each line _emphatic_, unless it is really an _emphatic word_.
New National Fourth Reader J. Marshall Hawkes
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In practice, an adverb is often used to qualify a remote word, where the latter is _more emphatic than any nearer word_.
How to Write Clearly Rules and Exercises on English Composition Edwin A. Abbott
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_Brackets_ include a word or words mentioned as a matter of discourse, as, _The little word_ [man] _makes a great noise_, &c.
A Museum for Young Gentlemen and Ladies Or, a Private Tutor for Little Masters and Misses
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In one of the most remarkable of his lyrics (like this poem, a song of spring), Tennyson has come very near, as near perhaps as it is possible to do in words, towards explaining the actual process through which poetry comes into existence: _The fairy fancies range, and lightly stirr'd, Ring little bells of change from word to word_.
Latin Literature 1902
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At length Cameron stood up, and said to his men in a quiet tone, "Be ready, lads, for instant action; when I give the word ` Up, 'spring to your feet and cock your guns, but _don't fire a shot till you get the word_."
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If this were the correct derivation, we should expect to find _sinecere_, for the _e_ would scarcely be dropped; just as we have the English word _sinecure_, which is the only compound of the preposition _sine_ I know; and is itself _not a Latin word_, but of a later coinage.
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The true word of a Mason is, not the entire, perfect, absolute truth in regard to God; but the highest and noblest conception of Him that our minds are capable of forming; and this _word_ is Ineffable, because one man cannot communicate to another his own conception of Deity; since every man's conception of God must be proportioned to his mental cultivation, and intellectual powers, and moral excellence.
Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Albert Pike 1850
johnca commented on the word word
Listing "word" connected me to listing recursion. Funnily enough, Wordie actually broke on "word" (it's fixed now).
December 7, 2006
uselessness commented on the word word
One-word sentences? Eliminate.
January 25, 2007
oroboros commented on the word word
Some of the interconnected bounty of words is that a man can be much pleased over his own descriptions of Rome without ever actually going there; and then another, hearing of this, can then enjoy his own verbal condemnation of same.
(Footnote: The mother of all win/win situations was words.)
--Jan Cox
April 6, 2007
polymorph commented on the word word
I found word by accidentally searching on a null string :) Sometimes the javascript in that search box eats my characters when I mouse fumble and click back in the box twice.
April 8, 2007
82times commented on the word word
I love word (<== note the recursion indicated) because it is a one-word sentence.
September 24, 2007
muamor commented on the word word
'Something you must keep after giving it to another.' - The Foolish Dictionary
February 27, 2008
qroqqa commented on the word word
As a verb it has a highly unusual property: an adjunct of manner is obligatory (which therefore makes it a complement of manner). You can't just word a letter: you have to word it, for example, carefully or with care.
October 29, 2008
hrivers commented on the word word
Testing
March 26, 2009
money commented on the word word
bouncebackabilty is a word meaning being able to recover from setbacks and/or obstacles.
May 12, 2009
bilby commented on the word word
Does that include bodgy spelling?
May 12, 2009
acardinale commented on the word word
bouncebackability is a bippety-boppety way of describing resilience is it not?
June 9, 2009
seanahan commented on the word word
It is.
June 10, 2009
brobbins commented on the word word
will, messenger
July 24, 2009
Astragali commented on the word word
My sister was asked by her English teacher (who had also been my English teacher) back in the Nineties, "What is a word?".
Although the exercise had been completed in class that day, I sent along my definition (this has been revised slightly over the years): A word is the concatenation of phonetic vocalizations which is only rendered comprehensible after application of the pronunciation and syntactic norms of the language of intended usage. The teacher's response was, "That's typical of him!"
That definition's probably wrong, but you never know...
June 20, 2010
oroboros commented on the word word
In typing, a word is a unit of length signified by five characters/spaces.
~via NPR's Says You
December 12, 2010
ruzuzu commented on the word word
"A word may be any part of speech, as verb, noun, particle, etc.; it may be radical, as love, or derivative, as lover, lovely, loveliness, or an inflected form, as loves, loved; it may be simple, or compound, as love-sick."
--Cent. Dict.
December 2, 2012