. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
you have here. The definition of the word
will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Wiktionary:Babel
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Names and attributes must be accommodated to the essence of things, and not the essence to the names, since things come first and names afterwards.
— Galileo Galilei
Notwithstanding their influence, we apprehend, however, that dictionary-makers are on the whole an oppressed race, doomed to more than their due share of obscure drudgery. They may have had their romance at home — may have been crossed in love, and thence driven to dictionarying; may have been involved in domestic tragedies — who can say?
— 1864, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (volume 96), uncredited author
he maximum number of revisions an author made is 237,600 for the English Wiktionary (user "Equinox") As an anonymous reviewer points out, this "sounds as an incredibly high number of revisions for one single user".
— 2016, Wolfer & Müller-Spitzer, How Many People Constitute a Crowd and What Do They Do?
Words, words, words, words! You may as well listen to the birds.
— 2000, Coil
Equinox one of those 'obnoxious elements' who cause trouble, but banning whom would go against every fiber of what built this project.
— 2024, Jimbo Wales
About me
I was born in 1980. Once I was a cute kid. Now I am a very non-cute old man, who can only rely on his ready wit and karate skills. Movie coming soon. Fund my Patreon.
My hobbies are: curling up in bed with a book (preferably 1800-1920 or so, and especially Victorian literature); the early history of home computing (c.1980-94, primarily 8-bits); walkin' in the woods and forests; and getting so drunk that I black out and don't dare to check my e-mail for a week.
On Wiktionary: I am the enfant terrible. Nobody wants me but I'm really useful.
Countability
The single thing that nobody seems to understand is grammatical countability. Let me try to explain it. "This word is not usually used in the plural" is not a measure of countability: we would rarely talk about the Eiffel Tower in the plural, because we know there's only one of them, but it retains the countability of tower. You could in theory count them: one tower, two towers. Better examples:
- Potato is usually countable. I have a potato here. I have one potato. Now I have two or three potatoes. How many potatoes do I have?
- Rice is not usually countable. I have some rice. Now I have more rice. How much rice do I have?
(Of course, I can say "the Chinese and Arabic rices are different", or "I mashed my vegetables and now there is some potato on my plate", but those are unusual cases. See universal grinder, universal packager.)
Controversy
Of course not everybody perceives and understands things the same way. However, we ain't solipsists, and there is some kind of objective reality. We are starting to see the trouble now because of a modern idea that everyone has "their truth", which you must accept. And yet we secretly know this is bullshit. But it's rude/phobic to oppose it. There would not be a dictionary project if truth were purely subjective, because it would mean nothing and there would be nothing to share. Interesting clashes.
P.S. Why does nobody call Flat-Earthers "spherephobic"?
Subpages
Individual words to consider
- Africoid allagmatic (cf. anallagmatic) almighties Angloid anteventral antiaccelerator(s) antibioticogram anticonvertin antiflapping antiaccelerator antitwist apocarotenol(s) aporrhea asellote asperflavin asperglaucide asperentin(s) aurilide auteured autometamorphic aviculoid
- baccharane basalar benzannelated,bisbenzannelated biamperometry biologistical bipotentiometry biwoven/uniwoven bromatotoxism
- cadalin (WP says alt form of cadalene?) carene* (organic compound?) choai/spondai cladosiphonic clausenolide clawfish codynamic comap(s) coopatum coperfect costals/neurals (re shells) cribriporal cyperane cytomicrosome
- dawnside/duskside diaconals downkeying drybond/dryset (cf. thinset)
- eotechnic (cf. neotechnic) etist (cf. itacist) episioperineorrhaphy erythroglaucin exopunctae eyepin/eye pin (in jewellery; cf. headpin)
- flavoglaucin frange* fusioning furanoclausamine futuritive
- gagemeter genorheitron glycosinine gonal gonidangium griseorhodin(s) groundfield
- harmonicals headender headreach heautonomy heteromatic heteromyarian hexaaquacopper highracer/lowracer histial hypermodulation hyperplasm(s) hyperschema hypocystal
- idealotropism/libidotropism/operotropism intergonal intratabular
- jinkohol
- khewat(s)
- macroid/microid (see pisoid) meristogenetic meristogenous mesene ("having a facial index of 50.0 to 54.9"?) microprofile (verb) microprofiler microshear microfusion*,macrofusion (sth in Intel processors?) misgating (noun, electronics) mnaeion monocillin mukonal mukonidine
- nucleofracture
- palatinepterygoid paracritical paraplate parapoetics parapreventive parasutural paratherapeutic paratherapy partricin pelmatozoic pelorine performatism pericingulum/pericingular/pericingulate photophagotroph photophagotrophy phyllosiphonic physcion pinhook(s) plumoreticulate poikilothymia poststack pramhood (part of boat?) presegment(s) prewarp (not Star Trek!) proairesis proterobase pseudoresolvent pseudosite pseudotopology pseudotopological pushload
- questinol
- radiorelay radiothermal radiothermic resorcylide rhodesioid rightmaking/wrongmaking
- sacropexy santalane saxifragoid(s) shionane skeletoid solus*/semisolus spheraster spirovetivane springformed/springforming (not springform in baking) strophanin suberyl supergreenhouse (~ effect, ~ gases) superlevel*,superline* (in astronomy) super-Locrian superquantum syngenesioplastic
- thermofunctional thetanullwerte transtextuality
- underwash (verb? cf. overwash) upkeying upperstocks
- wetwell (cf. drywell)
- yellowline (cf. redline, greenline)
- IRC jargon: AOP*, SOP*
- Singlish particles: ah, hah, hor, lah, leh, lor, mah, meh, ya
- Soil science: entic epieutric eutric fractiplinthic fragic gelic* greyic hyperalic hyperdystric hypersalic isohumisol lamellic leptic lutic manganiferric oxyaquic perudic petroduric petroferric pisoplinthic placic redoxic rendzic ruptic sabric salic sombric terric turbic vertic vitron*
- Qualifications: MMet, MPharm, MPhys; see also Oxford's
- Jobs in tinplate manufacturing: branding boy (also branning boy?), counter, duster, hooker (also a reaper, outside of tinplate sense), list boy/lister, riser, rubber, scaler, scourer, striker
- Types of motorbike? (cf. flathead): knucklehead, panhead, shovelhead, sportster
- Arrangements of conidia: arthrocatenate, blastocatenate, basocatenate
- "Facial index" words (old phrenology?), thanks to Ultimateria: euryene, mesene, leptene, euryprosopia, mesoprosopia, leptoprosopia, euryprosopic / europrosopic, mesoprosopic, leptoprosopic, hypereuryprosopic, hyperleptoprosopic, prosopic
ings
Possible problem entries
These are not always bad but I have bookmarked them because I think work or research is needed.
- administer: check Spectator cite meaning
- Alternativism: investigate
- ambivalent: 2 senses? check OED, Chambers!
- Baloo: truly a pet name for all animals? a dog, a gerbil, a stick insect?
- by vice of: I'm not convinced by those quotations.
- cheese up: add glosses (slang? etc.) and verify senses with cites
- conservatively correct, patriotically correct: Poor definition, surely not synonyms (not all conservatives are patriots!!), and these are loaded terms requiring some sort of usage notes or glosses.
- crass: check defs, compare with W1913!
- dystopia: verify sense 1
- femalia: perhaps RFV some senses
- Fortune 500: misplaced cites
- groundly: check all citations
- Hang: awful def, and check the weird plural
- harvest: check pagan sense
- headhair: not a "normal" word; also linked to
- highpriesthood, highpriestship: dubious forms without hyphen
- informationism: dodgy senses especially #4
- Kentucky Colonel: someone made a huge deal of the differences in capitalization (big-C and small-c colonel) which may not be true at all if you look at the real-world usage. (The en-noun in that entry is also wrong at the moment.)
- little boys room, little girls room: bad head? and apostrophe issue
- maidenhair: not a normal word, sort out pubic sense
- mammalogy, mammology: I think there is a mistake between mammals and breasts
- mother-out-law: check this whole set
- netherhair: awful, not a word anyone uses; netherlips: CRAP? — BUT nethermouth (Fanny Hill etc.?)
- nuthugger, nut huggers: some kind of merge required
- nutting: check lemma vs. -ing form
- pouf: alt form of "puff", "poof" etc., but we need to clarify which senses are which spellings
- pull-to-publish: maybe move verb
- ruinism: check citations, wrong senses?
- sideling: is suspect; check OED?
- supposed: adjective needs work
- uncivilized: needs work re weasel words, "used to describe" non-gloss etc. not at all necessary
- underlook: many different senses; needs attention
- zero chill: check def 3
Other places to get words
Wiktionarians I have met