Think about why it’s important to clarify the definition, to attempt to explain the essential nature of a thing or idea because people act on what they believe words to mean.

And sometimes the difference between what people believe words to mean and what they really mean can cause trouble. For example, to some people, "till death do us part" really means "until I get bored" or "until somebody better comes along" or "until the problems become too big for us to figure out." The person who believes the first meaning literally and the children act on it and commit.

In another case, one October in the early nineties, one stock owner asked his broker to sell $11 million worth of shares. But the person who typed it up sent an order to sell 11 million shares in the stock market, which were worth much more. The difference between those two words, "dollars" and "shares," caused the market to plunge, even though the real meaning was harmless. The typist, buyers, and sellers acted on what they thought the words to mean, and the facts that the typist was wrong and that the mistake was unintentional didn’t stop the market from plunging.

When meanings are revealed in an extended effort to discover what the term really denotes, people are safe to act on what they believe words to mean.