I thought it was an easy question ...

446 points · 33 comments · view on lemmy.world

33 Comments

superkret@feddit.org · 53 pts · 1y (3 replies)

If you want a clear definition, ask a mathematician:

A word is any written product of group elements and their inverses.

Or a computer scientist:

A word is a fixed-sized datum handled as a unit by the instruction set or the hardware of the processor.

folekaule@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 1y

Meanwhile, in Unicode land...

circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org · 10 pts · 1y

Maybe ironically, neither one would be appropriate as a linguistic definition.

affiliate@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y

i wonder what the inverse of the letters in the english alphabet are. since it has a non-prime number of letters (26 to be exact), we know that some letters won’t have inverses. i wonder which letters don’t have inverses. i guess it would be pretty easy to find out if you use the standard alphabet ordering and then port the alphabet over to ℤ/26ℤ, but that’s not a particularly satisfying answer.

four@lemmy.zip · 34 pts · 1y (13 replies)

"word" is a four letter word

lugal@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Please, it's w*rd, we want to keep this f*mily friendly

tdawg@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y (1 reply)

jst blck ll vwls t b* sf

lugal@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1y

Watch your l*nguage, my dear

dessimbelackis@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y (6 replies)

I think you’ll find that in actual fact “bird” is the word

prex@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 1y (1 reply)

That's what I heard.

spicytuna62@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
[ removed ]
Entropywins@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)

And it begins...probably be 2 days until I get the song out of my head

orb360@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 1y

My body is ready!

angrystego@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y

Birds are not real, though, are they?

pseudo@jlai.lu · 0 pts · 1y

The definition still applies.

nightwatch_admin@feddit.nl · 6 pts · 1y

Word!

railwhale@lemmy.nz · 4 pts · 1y

Recursive acronyms definitions

funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1y

that's a bit wordy

archonet@lemy.lol · 15 pts · 1y (3 replies)
slice@feddit.org · 8 pts · 1y (2 replies)

From which Tom Scott video is this ?

archonet@lemy.lol · 7 pts · 1y (1 reply)
slice@feddit.org · 1 pts · 1y

Thanks

carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 14 pts · 1y

xnopyt

lugal@lemmy.ml · 12 pts · 1y

Still even people new to writing have a good intuition about that but formalizing this intuition is a different story

deaf_fish@lemm.ee · 8 pts · 1y (1 reply)

And I love them for it. Seriously comfortable society is built on and by nerds.

slice@feddit.org · 2 pts · 1y

Yeah I love it too. It was quite an interesting deep dive into that topic.

chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de · 5 pts · 1y

Saussure feelings

wandermind@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 1y (2 replies)

As a linguist, I'd just shrug.

Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 1y (1 reply)

"everyone knows what a word is, that is the definion"

shneancy@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y

the cries of alien archaeologists from the far future echo in the distance

Mango@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y (2 replies)

What IS a word?

SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 1y

vsauce music starts playing

Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 1y

"what" is a word, correct.

Hupf@feddit.org · 1 pts · 1y

What is Truth and what is God?