Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Dealing or concerned with facts or actual occurrences; practical.
- adj. Philosophy Of or relating to pragmatism.
- adj. Relating to or being the study of cause and effect in historical or political events with emphasis on the practical lessons to be learned from them.
- adj. Archaic Active; busy.
- adj. Archaic Active in an officious or meddlesome way.
- adj. Archaic Dogmatic; dictatorial.
- n. A pragmatic sanction.
- n. Archaic A meddler; a busybody.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Relating to civil affairs; relating or pertaining to the affairs of a community. See pragmatic sanction, below.
- Same as pragmatical, in any sense.
- In the Kantian philos, practical in a particular way—namely, having reference to happiness.—
- n. A man of business; one who is versed or active in affairs.
- n. A busybody; a meddlesome person.
- n. A decree or ordinance issued by the head of a state.
- n. A term used (by Kant) to denote rules of action (otherwise denominated ‘counsels of prudence’) which have to do with the attainment of happiness. As used by him, it is antithetic to the term ‘practical,’ which refers to principles of action (otherwise called ‘categorical imperatives’) which have to do with the attainment of virtue.
- n. Having to do with pragmatism as a philosophy: as, the pragmatic movement; pragmatic thought. See pragmatism, 3.
Wiktionary
- adj. Practical, concerned with making decisions and actions that are useful in practice, not just theory
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to business or to affairs; of the nature of business; practical; material; businesslike in habit or manner.
- adj. Busy; specifically, busy in an objectionable way; officious; fussy and positive; meddlesome.
- adj. Philosophical; dealing with causes, reasons, and effects, rather than with details and circumstances; -- said of literature.
- n. One skilled in affairs.
- n. A solemn public ordinance or decree.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. concerned with practical matters
- adj. guided by practical experience and observation rather than theory
- n. an imperial decree that becomes part of the fundamental law of the land
- adj. of or concerning the theory of pragmatism
Etymologies
- From French pragmatique, from Late Latin pragmaticus ("relating to civil affair; in Latin, as a noun, a person versed in the law who furnished arguments and points to advocates and orators, a kind of attorney"), from Ancient Greek πραγματικός (pragmatikós, "active, versed in affairs"), from πρᾶγμα (pragma, "a thing done, a fact"), in plural πράγματα (prágmata, "affairs, state affairs, public business, etc."), from πράσσειν (prassein, "to do") (whence English practical). (Wiktionary)
- Latin prāgmaticus, skilled in business, from Greek prāgmatikos, from prāgma, prāgmat-, deed, from prāssein, prāg-, to do. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“On a good day, I consider myself a centrist (though I prefer the term pragmatic liberal), so I've been more willing than most to hear arguments about making compromises, reaching across the aisle, and taking a short term loss for a long term gain.”
“Russian envoy Grigory Berdennikov said world powers expect Iran to show what he called a "pragmatic attitude" and respond positively.”
Voice of America: World Powers Urge Iran to Return to Nuclear Talks
“The second half is much more specific to the Evangelical community but does make some interesting points about what he calls the pragmatic philosophy of Youth Ministry.”
“The semantic difficulty may be seen in the various ways historians have used the word pragmatic.”
“Finel rejects this approach in favor of what he calls a pragmatic one.”
“But they take what they describe as a pragmatic approach, saying it's a better alternative to extending a U.N. mandate, due to expire Dec. 31, that would allow American troops far more freedom to operate.”
“But they take what they describe as a pragmatic approach, saying it's a better alternative to extending a U.N. mandate, due to expire Dec 31, that would allow American troops far more freedom to operate.”
“To quote your article, Dr. Samet said; "The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cellphones and cancer." (my emphasis) and further on in the article you quote Dr. Christopher Wild as saying; "...that in view of the potential implications for public health, there should be more research on long-term, heavy use of mobile phones." (my emphasis) The rest of his quote should be taken as mere pragmatism (he actually uses the word 'pragmatic').”
“My only qualm, which might not be pragmatic, is that perhaps the party pitching the segment should be absolutely required to disclose relationships and funding as a pre-requisite for the interview.”
“First, in pragmatic terms it suggests a mostly balanced and not unreasonable view of 4A protections (at least in comparison to some of the competing theories).”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pragmatic’.
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@vcb.etym.prjct - SAT WORD DUMP - as ...
The words on this list SAT regulars that I haven't sorted and grouped yet. It's like my wordy holding pen. get it? holding the pen to write a word? HA! I love how lame my humor is.
iconoclast, glacial, agnostic, histrionic, treacly, contemptuous, captious, bombastic, bombast, perfidy, quiescence, sordid and 148 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Verbal_Advantage
paraphrase, ostensible, digress, uncanny, candor, morose, adept, saturated, pragmatic, congenial, capricious, blatant and 38 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 476 more...
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What Do You Mean ?
U Gotta Know These.......
falter, ruddy, flounder, pallid, fumble, founder, labile, titular, tacit, pragmatic, fatalism, jaded and 112 more...
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Prep my Lang
Collection of my wordnik word search
equivocal, anomaly, proliferate, assimilate, obscure, aberration, parse, circumnavigate, circumvent, decipher, prose, impasse and 94 more...
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Vocabulary
Words I come across while reading.
talus, echelon, onanistic, cabochon, avocation, charnel, moue, portentous, prolixity, astringent, hoary, patina and 165 more...
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GRE
anomaly, assuage, enigma, equivocal, erudite, fervid, placate, lucid, opaque, precipitate, prodigal, zeal and 113 more...
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Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
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The New Yorker
prejudice, ignominious, quintessence, disparity, vanguard, repudiated, eclectic, dredge, taxonomy, pugnacious, surreptitiously, pudgy and 113 more...
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List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
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Novel Words
Concise words to sprinkle in my prose.
apropos, perception, discombobulated, adumbrate, apogee, antinomy, sanguine, glyph, taciturn, aesthetic, truncate, coffee and 143 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pragmatic.
thinkcharlene Law & Order - Season 7, Episode 16 - "Turnaround" Sep 11, 2007
jrome pragmatic - the opposite of hope. Ze Frank Jan 23, 2007