What are definitional assumptions?

A definitional assumption is like choosing the rules of a game before you start playing, without even realizing it.

Imagine you and your friend are building a tower with blocks. You both think you're using the same kind of block, but one of you uses bigger blocks than the other. When the tower falls, you might argue about who built it wrong, but really, you had different rules for what counted as a "block." That's a definitional assumption: you both thought you were playing the same game, but your definitions (what a block is) weren’t the same.

If you don’t agree on the rules at the start, it can cause confusion later. Like when you're baking cookies, if one person thinks "a cup of flour" means a big handful, and another uses a measuring cup, the cookie might turn out too dry or too soft!

Definitional assumptions are just like that: they’re hidden choices about what things mean, and they can shape how everything else works.