PRAGMATIC

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does pragmatic mean? 

• PRAGMATIC (noun)
  The noun PRAGMATIC has 1 sense:

1. an imperial decree that becomes part of the fundamental law of the land

  Familiarity information: PRAGMATIC used as a noun is very rare.

• PRAGMATIC (adjective)
  The adjective PRAGMATIC has 3 senses:

1. concerned with practical matters

2. of or concerning the theory of pragmatism

3. guided by practical experience and observation rather than theory

  Familiarity information: PRAGMATIC used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRAGMATIC (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An imperial decree that becomes part of the fundamental law of the land

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

pragmatic; pragmatic sanction

Hypernyms ("pragmatic" is a kind of...):

imperial decree (a decree issued by a sovereign ruler)

• PRAGMATIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Concerned with practical matters

Synonyms:

matter-of-fact; pragmatic; pragmatical

Context example:

a matter-of-fact account of the trip

Similar:

practical (concerned with actual use or practice)

Derivation:

pragmatism (the attribute of accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of or concerning the theory of pragmatism

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

pragmatic; pragmatical

Pertainym:

pragmatism ((philosophy) the doctrine that practical consequences are the criteria of knowledge and meaning and value)

Derivation:

pragmatism ((philosophy) the doctrine that practical consequences are the criteria of knowledge and meaning and value)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Guided by practical experience and observation rather than theory

Synonyms:

hard-nosed; hardheaded; practical; pragmatic

Context example:

not ideology but pragmatic politics

Similar:

realistic (aware or expressing awareness of things as they really are)

Derivation:

pragmatism (the attribute of accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth)

 Context examples 

Increasingly the concept is used synonymously with race but this use trend has a pragmatic basis rather than scientific.

(Ethnicity, NCI Thesaurus)

For all his pragmatic certitude, it seemed as if he watched the play and movement of life in the hope of discovering something more about it, of discerning in its maddest writhings a something which had hitherto escaped him,—the key to its mystery, as it were, which would make all clear and plain.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)