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Comment by rantallion | Hacker News Reader

> They have sugar in them or chemicals.

Nitpick: everything is a chemical (even water itself).

It is possible for a statement to be technically correct, but practically incorrect. Words have different definitions and meanings in different contexts. If you try to force a meaning from one context into another context, you have made an error in your language use.

If you take a look at the dictionary, which is a documentation of the practical use of words, you will see that to talk of chemicals in food is entirely coherent. Words do not have absolute definitions, they are defined by their usage in the real language.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/chemica....

You linked a dictionary definition which would qualify water as chemical. Even your own source disagrees with you.

The purpose of language is communication. If the 'practical' use of the word doesn't communicate anything, then the practical use is wrong.

You can’t redefine words as you see fit to suit a simplified model of the world. Meaning is complex and shaded by situation and intent.

Note that the dictionary you provided agrees with me and disagrees with you. The one redefining words here is you. Well, you'd actually have to have defined the word in the first place, but you haven't even done that. If you can't even define the word you're talking about, how can you be in a position to tell other people what it means?

Definition #2 clearly refers to and includes an industrial chemical process as you can see in the usage examples and synonyms. This is how language works. One word can have many meanings and shades of meanings. When people talk about chemicals in food, everyone knows the definition being used is in the sense of industrially produced chemicals that are not present in plants and animals. Pointing out that other definitions of the word exist is as irrelevant to the conversation as if you were talking about eating oranges and I said, well actually that’s a color and you can’t eat it.

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