Possible Duplicate:
The same word used to define itself
For example TLA is a three letter acronym; Antepreroxitone (words with the stress on the third from last sylable) is an antepreroxitone; Noun is a noun.
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marked as duplicate by Mitch, Kit Z. Fox♦, Matt E. Эллен♦, James Waldby - jwpat7, simchona Jun 2 '12 at 4:48
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
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Related: Word used to define itself, Is there a term for a word that defeats its own purpose?, What is a catchy word that means (non-)self-descriptive, Term for poetry that mimics what it describes, A word meaning “looking like the object that it describes”, What do we call this kind of recursive expression? – RegDwigнt♦ Jun 1 '12 at 9:02
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1TLA is a three letter abbreviation or initialism, unless you pronounce it as "tlah". – Hugo Jun 1 '12 at 10:56
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A word expressing a property which it also possesses itself is said to be autological.
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A word that describes a group of words including itself could be called a self-inclusive word.
Bertrand Russell could not find anything better than member of itself for his famous paradox:
The class of all classes that are not members of themselves, is or is not a member of itself?
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There is a technical mathematical term to describe this situation. It is:
impredicative
which is a definition of an object that presumes the existence of the object in order for the definition to be well-founded. It is related to 'recursive definition' but not identical.
