Words are interesting. We as humans invent words as part of our language to describe actions, events, people, places, things and even abstract concepts. What I find interesting is that we create words that may only have subjective definitions. In some cases I accept this because context resolves the subjectiveness of the definition. For example, the word ‘bad’, even with its various definitions as an adjective still doesn’t give much direction in its meaning or use. But, with context I am able to derive its meaning.

But there are other words that I would argue defy definition of any kind. I have two examples: chaos and perfect. Definitions of chaos try define a state, situation or interactions that we as humans are unable to define. Even by defining chaos you have brought order to where none exists. In this case you could argue that I have defined the word. But, I would argue that even context doesn’t help in defining chaos.

Next, there is the word perfect. Everyone’s definition of perfect will be different for different things. But if you truly think about the word, how can imperfect creatures ever know perfect even if it was presented to us. The best we can hope to accomplish is to find no flaws.

In the future, maybe I’ll tackle words such as always, never, prove and intuitive…