dissertation meaning urban dictionary

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Slang for dissertation.

As you've probably noticed, the slang synonyms for " dissertation " are listed above. Note that due to the nature of the algorithm, some results returned by your query may only be concepts, ideas or words that are related to " dissertation " (perhaps tenuously). This is simply due to the way the search algorithm works.

You might also have noticed that many of the synonyms or related slang words are racist/sexist/offensive/downright appalling - that's mostly thanks to the lovely community over at Urban Dictionary (not affiliated with Urban Thesaurus). Urban Thesaurus crawls the web and collects millions of different slang terms, many of which come from UD and turn out to be really terrible and insensitive (this is the nature of urban slang, I suppose). Hopefully the related words and synonyms for " dissertation " are a little tamer than average.

The Urban Thesaurus was created by indexing millions of different slang terms which are defined on sites like Urban Dictionary . These indexes are then used to find usage correlations between slang terms. The official Urban Dictionary API is used to show the hover-definitions. Note that this thesaurus is not in any way affiliated with Urban Dictionary.

Due to the way the algorithm works, the thesaurus gives you mostly related slang words, rather than exact synonyms. The higher the terms are in the list, the more likely that they're relevant to the word or phrase that you searched for. The search algorithm handles phrases and strings of words quite well, so for example if you want words that are related to lol and rofl you can type in lol rofl and it should give you a pile of related slang terms. Or you might try boyfriend or girlfriend to get words that can mean either one of these (e.g. bae ). Please also note that due to the nature of the internet (and especially UD), there will often be many terrible and offensive terms in the results.

There is still lots of work to be done to get this slang thesaurus to give consistently good results, but I think it's at the stage where it could be useful to people, which is why I released it.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source code that was used in this project: @krisk , @HubSpot , and @mongodb .

Finally, you might like to check out the growing collection of curated slang words for different topics over at Slangpedia .

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The Urban Dictionary is a crowdsourced website that records new words and their meanings. It began life in 1999 as a parody of Dictionary.com but has since become an important resource on the Web. Indeed, judges in the U.K. famously used the site in 2005 to help them understand slang used by two rappers involved in a dispute.

Part of Urban Dictionary’s appeal is its informal approach, which allows both definitions and descriptions of words. It even allows opinions, which can sometimes be offensive. It captures new words quickly and registers many of the variations that emerge over time. A voting system allows users to show admiration or disdain, revealing words’ popularity.

Today, many millions of users rely on the site to keep them up to date with slang, common usage, and popular culture.

Of course, Urban Dictionary has its shortcomings. In the absence of style guides, editors, and moderators, the content can be vague and inaccurate. Also, little is known about the people who post new words and whether the entries reflect real changes in the language or just those that affect a small subset of people.

So just how good is the Urban Dictionary at capturing new words, and how does it compare with more conventional approaches to producing online dictionaries?

Today, we get an answer of sorts thanks to the work of Dong Nguyen at the Alan Turing Institute in London and a few pals, who compare the Urban Dictionary and its content with Wiktionary, another crowdsourced dictionary. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic study of Urban Dictionary at this scale,” they say.

Wiktionary is an interesting comparison because it takes a much more formal approach to crowdsourcing. This is a sister site to Wikipedia, run by the same Wikimedia organization. It records only word definitions and employs guidelines about how these should be compiled. It also guides users as to what constitutes a definition. Moderators edit the content, control vandalism, and aim to generate high-quality results. Unsurprisingly, Wiktionary has also become an important online resource, one that researchers increasingly use for natural-language processing and so on. 

Nguyen and co begin by analyzing the Urban Dictionary content in the broadest terms. They say it records 2,661,625 definitions for 1,620,438 words and phrases. Most words have just one definition, but a few have upwards of 1,000.

The word with the highest number of definitions is emo , with 1,204.  And the top definition is this:

• A terribly misconstrued and misused word. In contemporary culture it is utilized as a broad term to describe a multitude of children and teenagers who straighten their hair, have their hair in their face, perhaps dye it black, and wear tight clothing. Unfortunately this is completely inaccurate. Actual “emo” music existed in the late 80’s and was a subgenre of hardcore punk rock, after all, “emo” is a shortening of “Emotional hardcore punk rock.” The people in early emo bands dressed like regular people, everyday guys/girls who just played music that they enjoyed. Sadly, since the formulation and ongoing existence of Hot Topic, the term emo has been incorrectly characterized for a little more than a decade. You have to wonder how the original bands feel about the slandering and mass misunderstanding and misuse of their originality with those of the unoriginal.

By contrast, Wiktionary lists five definitions for emo :

• A particular style of hardcore punk rock 2. An individual or group of people associated with that subculture and musical style. 3. Any form of guitar-driven alternative rock that is particularly or notably emotional 4. An individual or group of people associated with a fashion or stereotype of that style of rock. 5. A young person who is considered to be over-emotional or stereotypically emo.

The word with the next highest number of definitions on Urban Dictionary is love , with 1140. The other words in the top 10 by number of definitions are: god , urban dictionary , chode , C anada’s  history , sex , school , cunt, and scene .

In terms of popularity, upvotes slightly outnumber downvotes. But, say Nguyen and co, “there is a wide variation among the definitions, with some having more than ten times more up votes than down votes and some the other way around.” 

The team also compare the lexical coverage of Urban Dictionary and Wiktionary. It turns out that the overlap is surprisingly small—72 percent of the words on Urban Dictionary are not recorded on Wiktionary. 

However, the team note that many words on Urban Dictionary are relevant to only a small subset of users. Many are nicknames or proper names such as Dan Taylor , defined as “A very wonderful man that cooks the best beef stew in the whole wide world.” These usually have only one meaning.

So to study more common words, the team also compared only those words that have two or more definitions. In that case, the overlap is much larger: just 25 percent of the definitions appear only on Urban Dictionary. For example, the word phased  appears on both dictionaries as something being done bit by bit—in phases.

However, Urban Dictionary also describes several other meanings, such as “A word that is used when your asking if someone wants to fight” and “to be ‘buzzed.’ when you arent drunk, but arent sober.”

In this analysis, many more words appear only on Wiktionary, some 69 percent of them. Nguyen and co say that many of these are encyclopedic entries such as acacetins , dramaturge , and S hakespearean sonnets .

That leads the team to a clear conclusion. “In general, we can say that the overlap between the two dictionaries is small,” they say.

Urban Dictionary meanings also include opinions, unlike those on Wiktionary. One definition of beer is this: “Possibly the best thing ever to be invented ever. I MEAN IT.”

To work out what proportion of definitions these make up, the team had crowdworkers assess each to determine whether it was an opinion or a meaning and whether they were familiar with it.

They found that up to 50 percent of meanings for proper nouns were opinions and that the workers were unfamiliar with the majority of these uses. They also found definitions such as  coffee,  “a person who is coughed upon.”

In addition, crowdworkers found that much of the Urban Dictionary content was offensive, but that this cntent  tended to get lower votes.

“We also found that words with more definitions tended to be more familiar to crowdworkers, suggesting that Urban Dictionary content does reflect broader trends in language use to some extent,” say Nguyen and co.

The work provides a unique window into a website that has come to play an important role in popular culture. That should set the scene for other studies. In particular, an interesting question is whether online dictionaries not only record linguistic change but actually drive it, as some linguists suggest.

Perhaps something for a future research project.

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Definition of dissertation noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• dissertation
• He wrote his Master's dissertation on rats.
• Students can either do a dissertation or take part in a practical project.
• hall of residence
• Candidates are required to present a dissertation of between 8 000 and 12 000 words.
• She is writing her dissertation on the history of the Knights Templar.
• dissertation on

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Definition of thesis

Did you know.

In high school, college, or graduate school, students often have to write a thesis on a topic in their major field of study. In many fields, a final thesis is the biggest challenge involved in getting a master's degree, and the same is true for students studying for a Ph.D. (a Ph.D. thesis is often called a dissertation ). But a thesis may also be an idea; so in the course of the paper the student may put forth several theses (notice the plural form) and attempt to prove them.

Examples of thesis in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'thesis.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

in sense 3, Middle English, lowering of the voice, from Late Latin & Greek; Late Latin, from Greek, downbeat, more important part of a foot, literally, act of laying down; in other senses, Latin, from Greek, literally, act of laying down, from tithenai to put, lay down — more at do

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 3a(1)

Dictionary Entries Near thesis

the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children

thesis novel

Cite this Entry

“Thesis.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thesis. Accessed 22 Jul. 2024.

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Kids definition of thesis, more from merriam-webster on thesis.

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Meaning of dissertation in English

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• boilerplate
• composition
• corresponding author
• essay question
• peer review

dissertation | Intermediate English

Examples of dissertation, translations of dissertation.

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the process or business of producing plastic

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dissertation

[ dis-er- tey -sh uh n ]

• a written essay, treatise, or thesis, especially one written by a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
• any formal discourse in speech or writing.

/ ˌdɪsəˈteɪʃən /

• a written thesis, often based on original research, usually required for a higher degree
• a formal discourse

Derived Forms

• ˌdisserˈtational , adjective
• ˌdisserˈtationist , noun

Other Words From

• disser·tation·al adjective
• disser·tation·ist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of dissertation 1

Example Sentences

Thirteen years ago, while working on her PHD dissertation in Madagascar’s Masoala Peninsula, Borgerson encountered a problem.

At Harvard, he received a PhD in government and wrote his dissertation under Henry Kissinger, who became a lifelong friend.

I planned to go back to physics after a couple of years and then return to wrap up my dissertation.

My buba’s lived experience helped shape me into the girl who wrote her college dissertation on the gender pay gap, arguing for equal parental leave for dads and moms, almost 20 years before any major employer implemented any such thing.

My PhD dissertation was a highly theoretical model representing computer systems that were framed as a mathematical model, and if they were interconnected in such a way that these interconnected computers would communicate like cells in the body.

A terrific cultural studies dissertation awaits on how the fortunes of the Cheneys provide a mirror on a changing America.

Today, he visits online forums and bombards them with dissertation-length comments.

In her dissertation, McFate had asked whether ‘good anthropology’ might lead to ‘better killing.’

Heritage has distanced itself from Richwine and his dissertation.

No single dissertation will alter the status quo on its own.

I've never had time to write home about it, for I felt that it required a dissertation in itself to do it justice.

Dr. Pitcairn, published at Leyden his dissertation on the circulation of the blood through the veins.

Start not, reader, I am not going to trouble you with a poetical dissertation; no, no!

Dissertation sur les Assassins, Académie des Inscriptions, tom.

This dissertation, which is illustrated by several plates, will repay for the time spent in reading it.

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dissertation

• dissertation (noun)
• He wrote his dissertation on an obscure 16th-century poet.

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What does the noun dissertation mean?

There are three meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun dissertation , one of which is labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

How common is the noun dissertation ?

How is the noun dissertation pronounced?

British english, u.s. english, where does the noun dissertation come from.

Earliest known use

early 1600s

The earliest known use of the noun dissertation is in the early 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for dissertation is from 1611, in the writing of John Speed, historian and cartographer.

dissertation is a borrowing from Latin.

Etymons: Latin dissertātiōn-em .

Nearby entries

• dissentment, n. a1699–
• dissentory, n. 1658
• disseparable, adj. a1849–
• disseparate, v. 1550
• dissepiment, n. 1727–
• dissepimental, adj. 1857–
• dissept, v. 1657
• dissepulchred, adj. 1800–
• dissert, v. 1623–
• dissertate, v. 1766–
• dissertation, n. 1611–
• dissertational, adj. 1833–
• dissertationist, n. 1844–
• dissertative, adj. 1816–
• dissertator, n. 1698–
• disserve, v. 1637–
• disservice, n. 1599–
• disservice, v. 1837–
• disserviceable, adj. 1645–
• disserviceableness, n. 1635–
• disserviceably, adv. a1670–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for dissertation, n..

dissertation, n. was first published in 1896; not yet revised.

dissertation, n. was last modified in July 2023.

Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include:

• corrections and revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations which have been added in subsequent print and online updates.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into dissertation, n. in July 2023.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1896)

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OED Second Edition (1989)

• View dissertation in OED Second Edition

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