empty semantics

An insult derived from an irrelevant but pithy-sounding technical term. Combining the perjorative and jargon terms feigns a deep, smart reason for refusing to shed ignorance.

James felt fearful and unaccustomed to using his own mind and habitually ceased his thinking at the perimeter of his peer group's established belief system. When someone posted an article with ideas threatening its gossamer bonds, his instinct for conservation drove him to cry, "Empty semantics!"

by facebook_is_the_best November 6, 2017

Anti-Semantic

When people are upset by the choice of words you use. Can be used as a noun or adjective.

For example, if you were to use “death” to describe “dismantling an institution”, and someone takes offence. They were to say, “hey saying death to an institution is just as bad as murdering babies and committing genocide.”You could call that person an Anti-Semantic. Or you could say their views are Anti-Semantic.

by Words are okay June 30, 2025

SEMANTIC FIDELITY

How well a message preserves its core meaning as it moves through filters, algorithms, translations, or people. High fidelity means the intent survives. Low fidelity means the words still look right but the meaning has drifted.

“I told him I needed support, and he sent me a link to a productivity hack. Zero semantic fidelity.”

by GuyWhoWritesDefinitions November 5, 2025

Semantic redirector

“If you’re reading this, someone got you to look it up. That’s their secret power.”

Cameron

Cameron is a brilliant semantic redirector

by Mr Ocean July 30, 2025

Semantic Seeding

The act of deliberately planting terms, phrases, or concepts into the digital world so that they spread, get picked up by algorithms, and eventually become part of everyday language. Unlike regular SEO, which just makes things easier to find, semantic seeding shapes how people (and AIs) talk about stuff in the first place. It’s about influencing the categories and meanings themselves.

“Dude, that phrase didn’t just trend by accident—it was straight-up semantic seeding.”

by LexicalBandit September 8, 2025

semantic

1. a number that just increases every time someone does something, because doing things properly is hard.

Ive just made a code change. I expect semantic versioning to automatically increment, because bumping a version up (0.0.1 -> 0.0.2) by 1 is hard.

by anonymous April 20, 2023

semantic

1. A number that just increases every time someone does something, because doing things properly is hard.

When someone does a thing with a code change and expects semantic versioning to increment itself. Simply append the version by one (depending on a breaking/major/minor change) and deploy. Fairly simple...

by anonymous April 20, 2023