Windmills of word definitions

Sometimes you come up with words you don’t quite understand. Even though you’ll meet some people who claim to have higher knowledge about the exact meaning of words, words have a different meaning to everybody, no matter what some websford dictionary definition says what it should be.

What is the meaning of life? Oh no, I don’t know the answer, am I doomed? In those cases it is time to stop and think how well do you understand the question in the first place. Life? You mean my life or life on this planet? Last time you asked me about the purpose of life, now you talk about the meaning. Isn’t that a different thing? And why are you suggesting there is only one meaning to life?

You’ll find that you can often solve problems just by defining the questions carefully, and being more specific about the meaning of the words. When it comes to word definitions in your personal thinking, you don’t actually have to care at all about official meanings of words. It is enough that you agree with yourself what you mean by a given word.