Word.ws English Dictionary

working definition

working definition noun: a definition that is chosen for an occasion and may not fully conform with established or authoritative definitions.

Noun

working definition (plural working definitions)

  1. A definition that is chosen for an occasion and may not fully conform with established or authoritative definitions.
    • Not knowing of established definitions would be grounds for selecting or devising a working definition.
  2. A definition being developed; a tentative definition that can be tailored to create an authoritative definition.

Forms of working definition

pluralworking definitions

Questions about working definition

What does working definition mean?
Working definition means a definition that is chosen for an occasion and may not fully conform with established or authoritative definitions.
What part of speech is working definition?
Working definition is a noun.
What is the plural of working definition?
The plural of working definition is working definitions.

Words near working definition in the dictionary

  1. working class
  2. working classes
  3. working conditions
  4. working day
  5. working days
  6. working definition
  7. working definitions
  8. working directories
  9. working directory
  10. working dog
  11. working dogs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: working definition (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “working definition.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/working_definition. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.