Pragmatic

Pronunciation

• IPA: en, /pɹæɡˈmætɪk/

Alternative forms

• archaic
• obsolete

Origin

From , from , from , from πρᾶγμα ("a thing done, a fact"), in plural πράγματα ("affairs, state affairs, public business, etc."), from πράσσω ("to do") (whence ).

Full definition of pragmatic

Adjective

1. Practical, concerned with making decisions and actions that are useful in practice, not just theory.
   The sturdy furniture in the student lounge was pragmatic, but unattractive.
• 1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course Chapter 8, Nor indeed are these restrictions pragmatic in nature: i.e. the ill-formedness of the heed-sentences in (60) is entirely different in kind from the oddity of sentences like:
  (61) !That man will eat any car which thinks heʼs stupid
  which is purely pragmatic (i.e. lies in the fact that (61) describes the kind of bizarre situation which just doesnʼt happen in the world we are familiar with, where cars donʼt think, and people donʼt eat cars).
2. Philosophical; dealing with causes, reasons, and effects, rather than with details and circumstances; said of literature.
3. Interfering in the affairs of others; officious; meddlesome.

Synonyms

• (practical) down-to-earth, functional, practical, utilitarian, realistic

Antonyms

• idealistic

Derived terms

Related terms

Noun

1. A man of business.
2. A busybody.
3. A public decree.

Further reading

• Webster 1913
• Century 1911
• Keywords|page=240