definitionfor

Definitionfor is a term used in linguistics and information retrieval to describe the operation of obtaining or generating a definition for a given term or concept. In practice, definitionfor denotes a function-like construct found in dictionaries, lexical databases, and API design that maps a term and optional parameters to a human-readable definition. The concept is useful in applications that require automated glossaries, definitions for word senses, or on-demand explanations in educational and AI systems.

Origin and scope: The phrase combines definition with for, and while it is not a formal standard, it appears in discussions about definitional retrieval, corpus annotations, and software interfaces that expose glossary lookups. It is commonly treated as a generic abstraction rather than a fixed protocol, allowing researchers and developers to describe mechanisms that fetch, generate, or curate definitional text.

Formalization and usage: In pseudocode, a typical representation is definitionfor(term, language='en', sense=None, source=None) -> string. Implementations may draw on sense inventories such as WordNet, domain-specific glossaries, or user-provided corpora. The function can return a single definition or a ranked list of senses, with context-based disambiguation to resolve ambiguity. Definitionfor is often integrated into educational tools, digital assistants, and content-generation pipelines to support quick explanations.

Examples: definitionfor('apple', language='en', sense='fruit') might return "the edible fruit of the apple tree, typically round, with a crisp flesh." If sense='tech company', the result could be "a multinational technology company known for consumer electronics and software services."

See also: Lexicography, Definitions, Word sense disambiguation, Semantic search, Ontologies, Glossaries.