Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2018 September 2

= September 2 =

"is when" when defining a word
We all know that "is when" is valid when the word "when" is used literally, as in:

1865 is when the Civil War ended.

But sometimes "is when" is used in defining a word that has nothing to do with time, such as:

A cavity is when the hard surface of your tooth is damaged.

Is this often easy to spot?? Wiktionary has no entry for "is when", and its entry for when says nothing about this. Georgia guy (talk) 21:49, 2 September 2018 (UTC)


 * To me it's almost always a fairly brutal but consistent abbreviation of the following form - "Cavity is the word we use to describe the situation when the hard surface of your tooth is damaged."


 * In school they taught us that "is when" is a poor choice of words in creating a definition. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 22:26, 2 September 2018 (UTC)


 * Georgia_guy -- in the definition of a cavity, there's no precise time reference, but the word does refers to circumstances resulting from events. The following definition would sound very strange: "A cat is when an animal is a carnivore and has four limbs with retractable claws, whiskers, and pointy movable ears." AnonMoos (talk) 23:40, 2 September 2018 (UTC)


 * "Is when" is acceptable in colloquial English, but should usually be rephrased succinctly in more formal English so that the verb "is" has a noun or noun phrase as a complement:
 * I don't think this need a special Wiktionary entry. These expressions are used in many European language with all kinds of question words. --2001:16B8:314D:B400:88E4:B985:A02B:26DC (talk) 18:56, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
 * "A cavity is a hole formed when the hard surface of a tooth is damaged.", or "A cavity appears when the hard surface of a tooth is damaged."Ehrenkater (talk) 21:17, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
 * "when" means here: "a situation in which", i.e. "a situation wherein". HOTmag (talk) 21:00, 8 September 2018 (UTC)