“For a large class of cases — though not for all — in which we employ the word meaning it can be explained thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language.”

— Ludwig Wittgenstein, book Philosophical Investigations

§ 43, this has often been quoted as simply: The meaning of a word is its use in the language.
Philosophical Investigations (1953)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "For a large class of cases — though not for all — in which we employ the word meaning it can be explained thus: the mea…" by Ludwig Wittgenstein?

Ludwig Wittgenstein228

Austrian-British philosopher 1889–1951

Related quotes

“Words should be employed as the means, not as the end: language is the instrument, conviction is the work.”

Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) English painter, specialising in portraits

Discourse no. 4; vol. 1, p. 94.
Discourses on Art

“The words we use are the most clumsy symbols for meanings, and to suppose that such words as "war," "glory," "justice," "liberty,” “home," mean the same in two languages, is an error.”

Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968) American journalist

Give Me Liberty (1936)

“Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

“Your questions refer to words; so I have to talk about words.
You say: The point isn't the word, but its meaning, and you think of the meaning as a thing of the same kind as the word, though also different from the word. Here the word, there the meaning.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Philosophical Investigations

§ 120
Philosophical Investigations (1953)

“For the happy man prayer is only a jumble of words, until the day when sorrow comes to explain to him the sublime language by means of which he speaks to God.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“The language of Friendship is not words, but meanings.”

Henry David Thoreau A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

Source: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

“I have been willing, in the case of civil statutes, to acknowledge a doctrine of scrivener's error that permits a court to give an unusual (though not unheard of) meaning to a word which, if given its normal meaning, would produce an absurd and arguably unconstitutional result.”

Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

U.S. v. X-Citement Video Inc., 513 U.S. 64 http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/93-723.ZD.html (1994). <br class="br">1990s

“[T]hroughout the ages to be educated meant to be unproductive…. our word "school" - and its equivalent in all European languages - derives from a Greek word meaning "leisure."”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

Source: 1930s- 1950s, Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New 'Post-Modern' World (1959), p. 115

“Language does not extend to explaining the Way in detail, but it can be grasped intuitively. Study this book; read a word then ponder on it. If you interpret the meaning loosely you will mistake the Way.”

Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) Japanese martial artist, writer, artist

Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Water Book

“We never choose which words to use, for as long as they mean what they mean to mean, we don’t care if they make sense or nonsense.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

“For a large class of cases — though not for all — in which we employ the word meaning it can be explained thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Ludwig Wittgenstein228

Related quotes

Related topics