SEMANTICS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Semantics

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noun

Semantics n.

The study of the meanings of words and of the sense development of words; formerly called semasiology.

A doctrine and philosophical approach to language and its relationship to thought and behavior, developed by Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950), which holds that the capacity to express ideas and thereby improve one's interaction with others and one's environment is enhanced by training in the more critical use of words and other symbols; also called general semantics.

The meanings of words as they are used to achieve an effect; especially, the multiple meanings of words or the multiplicity of words having the same meaning; used in referring to the confusion that can be caused (intentionally or unintentionally) by multiple meanings; as, there's no real difference, it's only a matter of semantics.

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Etymology of 'Semantics'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Semantics" Quotes from Famous Books

... and began to scan it, wondering what it had to do with magic. He'd had a course of semantics in college and could see no relationship. But he soon ...

— The Sky Is Falling • Lester del Rey

... work done on the question since Pilate's time," Travis said. "My semantics prof at Command College had the start of an answer. He defined truth as a statement having a practical correspondence with reality on the physical levels of structure and observation and the verbal ...

— Oomphel in the Sky • Henry Beam Piper

Words linked to "Semantics" : conceptual semantics, formal semantics, lexical semantics, meaning, linguistics, semanticist, cognitive semantics, substance, semasiology, semantic