Reading the entire dictionary front to back! Something I’ve always wanted to try. We’re still in the letter C, with an eclectic assortment of little discoveries.

Once again, we raise the question of how to define something that is undefinable. In this case, the dictionary describes chaos as “the confused unorganized state existing before the creation of distinct forms” and “the inherent unpredictability in the behavior of a complex natural system.” Someone must have decided this was not specific enough, because next there’s a little diamond symbol (why?) followed by a list of synonyms, “confusion, jumble, snarl, muddle, disarray.”

You’d think a chapel is a place of worship, right? Not yet, because the first definition is “the cloak of St. Martin of Tours preserved as a sacred relic in a chapel built for that purpose.” Can you use a word in that word’s own definition? Feels like there should be a rule against that. I looked up this St. Martin person, and it’s a lot. Let’s just move on.

More mythology stuff with chimera. It’s “an imaginary monster made up of incongruous parts.” Interesting that the dictionary doesn’t specify which parts. It’s also “an illusion or fabrication of the mind.” You know, like an imaginary monster.

Then we get festive with Christmas, “December 25 celebrated as a church festival in commemoration of the birth of Christ and observed as a legal holiday.” I know they can’t include everything, but you can feel the lack of gift-giving and Santa.

A chronograph is “an instrument for measuring and recording time intervals with accuracy.” I’ve clearly read too much science fiction, because that sounds like sci-fi to me.

A cicerone is a “guide who conducts sightseers.” That sounds a lot cooler than just calling someone a tour guide.

It’s geometry time with circle, which is “a closed curve every point of which is equally distant from a fixed point within it.” I’ve got to admit, that describes it pretty good.

Here’s a new one. Civet is “a yellowish strong-smelling substance obtained from a catlike Old World mammal used in making perfumes.” You’ll have to forgive me for not being well informed about perfume terminology.

A cliffhanger is “an adventure serial or melodrama usually presented in installments each of which ends in suspense.” Curious that this is a type of story and not a story mechanic.

Clock has an oddly short definition, “a timepiece not intended to be carried on the person.” Is that really the most pertinent aspect of a clock? I want to jump ahead to see what the book says about wristwatch now, but I’ll wait.

Clone, on the other hand, gets a lengthy entry, “the collection of genetically identical cells or organisms produced asexually from a single ancestral cell or organism, also an individual grown from a single cell and genetically identical to it.” Then the dictionary adds, in parentheses, “(a sheep).” What does the dictionary know that the rest of us don’t?

Cockfight somehow made it into the dictionary, defined as “a contest of gamecocks usually fitted with metal spurs.” This is not a subject I’ve researched heavily, yet I’m surprised I’d never heard of the metal spurs part. Also, do cockfights actually take place somewhere, or are they an urban legend?

Animal definitions continue to be some of the most interesting. A cockroach is “any of an order or suborder of active nocturnal insects some which infest houses and ships.” That last part is once again someone at the dictionary who just has to point out that bugs are gross.

Next: Cow town.

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