I didn't say that 10-year olds can define what consciousness is, but that they understand what "consciousness" means. We know this by observing that they use the word in a meaningful way. Incidentally that's a common state of affairs. For example all people with normal eyesight understand what "red" means, but it is impossible to define it. That's why you can't transmit that understanding to a color-blind person, and that's why the inverted spectrum problem exists.
Incidentally one can easily understand why many basic concepts cannot be defined. One defines a concept using other more general concepts. If all concepts admitted of a definition then all definitions would be circular.
I did not mention 10 year-olds.
Pardon the cut and paste, but is this your definition of the two terms?
The terms, meaning and definition, often pop up when discussing words. While many believe them to be synonymous, and they are for the most part, they actually also differ from each other.
Let us look at the definition of “definition”. Dictionary.com defines “definition”, as:
- The act of making definite, distinct, or clear; a defining: We need a better definition of her responsibilities.
- The formal statement of the meaning or significance of a word, phrase, idiom, etc., as found in dictionaries. An online dictionary resource, such as Dictionary.com, can give users direct, immediate access to the definitions of a term, allowing them to compare definitions from various dictionaries and stay up to date with an ever-expanding vocabulary.
Whereas, “meaning” is defined as:
- What is intended to be, or actually is, expressed or indicated; signification; import: the three meanings of a word.
- The end, purpose, or significance of something: What is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of this intrusion?
- The nonlinguistic cultural correlate, reference, or denotation of a linguistic form; expression.
- Linguistic content (opposed to expression).
