You should follow several principles when you are writing a terminological definition, including the following:
Predictability - the definition inserts the concept into a concept system.
Simplicity - the definition is concise, clear, and whenever possible no longer than one sentence; it includes only essential information.
Affirmativeness - the definition states what the concept is, rather than what it is not.
Noncircularity - the definition does not use words whose definitions refer back to the concept in question, nor does it begin with the term itself.
Absence of tautology - the definition is not a paraphrase
of the term, but rather a description of the semantic
features of the concept.
Part of speech - the definition begins with a word of the same part of speech as the term being defined.
When you formulate a definition, keep the above mentioned principles in mind in addition to the following points:
The delimiting characteristics that identify the concept unambiguously, for example, genus and specific difference.
The method of definition best suited to the profile of the targeted users (including their communication needs and their level of knowledge). For example, an analytical definition that
gives the intrinsic characteristics of the concept may be better than a
definition by description that gives the extrinsic characteristics; a partitive
definition that lists the parts of an object may be better than a synonymous definition.
The rules that have been established with regard to drafting definitions for all records in a particular terminologydatabase. For example, it may have been decided that definitions must (or must not) begin with a definite or indefinite article.
The anchor word with which the statement begins, for example, the term designating the superordinate concept.
The preferred formulation for the concept category in question. For example, the definitions of state concepts begin with "Condition..." or "State ..."; definitions of action concepts, with "Act of ...", "Technique for ...", "Group of techniques for ..."; definitions of adjectival concepts, with "Of or relating to ..." or a participle functioning as an adjective.
Definitions should be as brief as possible and as complex as necessary.
