[static_void]

Just in case you're talking about descriptivism vs. prescriptivism.

I'm a descriptivist. I don't believe language should have arbitrary rules, like which kinds of words you're allowed to end a sentence with.

However, to be an honest descriptivist, you must acknowledge that words are used in certain ways more frequently than others. Definitions attempt to capture the canonical usage of a word.

Therefore, if you want to communicate clearly, you should use words the way they are commonly understood to be used.

[furyofantares]

> However, to be an honest descriptivist, you must acknowledge that words are used in certain ways more frequently than others. Definitions attempt to capture the canonical usage of a word.

True. And that's generally how they order the definitions in the dictionary, in order of usage.

For example, "an unfounded or mistaken impression or notion" is indeed the 2nd definition in M-W for "hallucination", not the first.

[trehalose]

A dictionary entry's second definition isn't necessarily an uncommonly used one. It could be up to 49% of the word's usage (assuming the dictionary has such precise statistics).