Technical definition


A technical definition is a definition in technical communication describing or explaining technical terminology. Technical definitions are used to introduce the vocabulary which makes communication in a particular field succinct and unambiguous. For example, the iliac crest from medical terminology is the top ridge of the hip bone.

Types of technical definitions

There are three main types of technical definitions.
  1. Power definitions
  2. Secondary definitions
  3. Extended definitions

    Examples

, a benzene ring with an amine group, is a versatile chemical used in many organic syntheses.
The genus Helogale contains two species.

Sentence definitions

These definitions generally appear in three different places: within the text, in margin notes, or in a glossary. Regardless of position in the document, most sentence definitions follow the basic form of term, category, and distinguishing features.

Examples

A major scale is a diatonic scale which has the semitone interval pattern 2-2-1-2-2-2-1.
In mathematics, an abelian group is a group which is commutative.
When a term needs to be explained in great detail and precision, an extended definition is used. They can range in size from a few sentences to many pages. Shorter ones are usually found in the text, and lengthy definitions are placed in a glossary. Relatively complex concepts in mathematics require extended definitions in which mathematical objects are declared and then restricted by conditions. These conditions often employ the universal and/or existential quantifiers, there exists ).
Note: In mathematical definitions, convention dictates the use of the word if between the term to be defined and the definition; however, definitions should be interpreted as though if and only if were used in place of if.

Examples

Definition of the limit of a single variable function:
Let be a real-valued function of a real variable and,, and be real numbers. We say that the limit of as approaches is and write if, for all, there exists such that whenever satisfies, the inequality holds.