I would say that one of the words I hear most often from non-philosophers in early-on conversations with philosophers, almost always placed in the interrogative is "define," as in "now, how would you define. . . ?" or "what's your definition of . . . ?" or "can you define. . . .?" Occasionally, most often I'd say in student papers, I end up seeing the indicative ". . . is defined as . . . according to the . . . . dictionary/encyclopedia/my uncle Jake, etc."
I don't hear "definition" pop up all that often when philosophers are plying their trade, teaching, or talking amongst themselves. Why is that, you might wonder? Well, although we hale from a profession and tradition that gets a good early start with Socrates wandering around asking people for definitions of key concepts, like virtue, justice, knowledge, and so on. . . most of us have come to realize -- one way or another -- just how difficult it can be to provide adequate definitions for any really interesting concept, experience, phenomenon. "Give me a definition of. . . " You demand that in many philosophical circles, and they rightly peg you as right off the bus, really or just ironically naive, or as playing at debater's tricks
