Is there a term for those overlapping circles used to explain concepts that are partially connected? There’s a mathematical side to it, I’m just addressing those things on the same level as a pie chart.
Why it’s important to me is that I use it to explain the phenomenon of word definitions, explain it to myself anyway. In other words, a single word has a range of definition that can be conceptualized as a circle. Another word can be related conceptually but not identical in meaning. I would suggest that virtually no two words in the English language have identical and completely overlapping circles. This is, quite frankly, a phenomenon evident in bad translations, or worse, a phenomenon of inexperienced people with ready access to a thesaurus.
You can imagine a concatenation of words leading to absurd results. For example, “nation” and “country” are pretty close, and so is “land.” This might yield:
In this fashion a computer might give “land,” “soil,” or “crap” as a translation for “nation,” which has some humorous appeal, especially in the wee hours of the morning.
Anyway, it would be great if somebody had put a name to this. Maybe it’s been described already.