I think axiom should fit, but according to its official definition, an axiom is a statement that is taken to be true, and as far as I know, a word can’t make an statement by its own.
Thank you, kind person. This is exactly the appropriate response!
Do any words like this actually exist, though? I’d wager that failure to define the word sufficiently is more of a limitation on the definer’s vocabulary than the word itself.
I certainly can’t imagine a word I couldn’t define. Some words are defined by their interrelationship, and that can seem circular… but since that interrelationship is how we make sense of the world, I don’t particularly see the problem. There’s nothing fundamental about that.
My mind went to things like “of” and “is” but it turns out you can define quite a bit about those words and their usage, in a great many words.
Axiomatic is pretty good. Irreducible is another. However, I would argue there are no undescribable words. If that were true, no one could learn certain words in other languages
I wonder if anyone has ever said something was indescribable, it was just because they weren’t aware of the word needed to describe it.
Even in a way, saying something was indescribable is doing a lot of heavy lifting by itself, which is weird.
What about words like “happiness” or “love”?
Fundamental is the term used to describe concepts like points in geometry. This seems like an analogous case, so I suggest it for your use here.
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The definition of crack in that instance would be something along the lines of: “The snapping sound the air makes when creating a small sonic boom. Like that of a whip cutting through the air.”
Even onomatopoeia has synonyms. Like some people say Atchoo. Some say kerchew. And then other languages say other words for the same sound.
I think you can always define a word using other words, without repeating the word in question. Just sometimes you have to take a pretty wide circle and the explanation can end up complicated
Are there any words that dont have synonyms?
Good question. Even “stipulation” has “proviso.”
These, either, neither
All can be explained but the explanation is certainly more complicated than simply understanding the word(s)
That shouldn’t be the case. Where that breaks down in more formal contexts is circular definitions. You don’t want to define one word using others that simply reference the defined word in their own definition. All words can be defined using the other available words. At some point it would become circular, but that’s of no consequence in the scope of all words.
Maybe not exactly what you’re looking for, but you could be interested in “circular definition”.
All words all symbolic of their referents, but the symbolism is usually arbitrary. So I don’t think there are actually any words like that.
What a great question!!
