What is a Definition Essay (With Example Essay)(0)

A definition essay is an expository essay that defines an abstract concept or an idea that can take many forms. The term defined by the definition essay usually has changed and evolved in its meaning over time. It takes different means in different cultures and contexts too.

With the essay writer free to choose the topic for the definition essay, he or she should choose one with a personal and emotional connection. The essay requires the writers to express what the term means to them.

Broad and abstract words usually are the topic of definition essays such as Empathy, Kindness, Contemporary Art, Human Will, etc.

It uses various techniques to define the essay topic:

• Denotation: The actual definition that is to be found in a dictionary

• Connotation: The meaning of the term through implied means.

• Enumeration: Defining a term through a list of things, examples, and situations.

• Analogy: The technique of showing the meaning for clarity through comparison with another similar idea or situation.

• Negation: Showing the reader what the definition isn't about.

Structure.

Here we will take snippets from a definition essay on'Family Love' and use it to demonstrate each part.

Introduction

The introduction begins with the essay writing service and introduces the topic from general to specific. It then introduces an important thesis statement.

A quote or an anecdote (Hook)

“The definitions of Love have been ambiguous and many. Social-scientists haven't been able to pin the definition down: From Freud calling it'frustrated desire, to'Skolnick defining it as, a constructed experience built with feelings, ideas, and cultural symbols. ”

Thesis Statement

Explains to the reader what your main idea or point is going to be.

“Among all types of love, familial love differs from the rest in its tradition of endurance, altruism, and affection dynamics, while also contributing to the moral dynamics.”

Body Paragraph

The Body Paragraph should include historical definition (Etymology), the Dennotative definition, Negations, analogies and your personal take on the topic.

Historical Definition

• For Freud, some aspect of the family love is linked with the process of a child's psychosexual development, where the child develops a desire for the opposite-sex parent and jealousy towards the same-sex parent

• Research as early as the early 1960s shows that this infrequent yet intimate bodily contact lays the ground for the first emotions of the infant and the first of the family love.

Denotative and other definitions

Denotative: Freud called love a frustrated desire while also talking about infantile sexuality upon talking about the dynamics of family love. Skolnick defined it as, a constructed experience built with feelings, ideas, and cultural symbols. Skolnick's definition sits well with Family Love. ”

Negation : Unlike romantic love family, love has a weighty endurance. The individual relationships within a family, hardly ever, get dissolved. While in other kinds of love, self-interest leads to conflicts and produces a struggle for power over one another.

Enumeration:

• Family love is the love between a child and a parent, between siblings, between parents, and between the immediate family and any other relation that is close to them.

• Family love is a compassionate love—a selfless love that is not demanding and takes on sacrifices for the fulfilment of a family member's wishes.

Personal Understanding

The last paragraph should be about what the term or the idea means to you. Here you can explain the term through personal experiences or through a personal insight you have gained, also check write my essay for more great guidelines.

Conclusion Conclusion

The conclusion helps guides the reader to a closure. It summarizes the main points of the definitions and justifies the thesis of the essay while closing in the end.