Adjective

(en adjective)

Practical, concerned with making decisions and actions that are useful in practice, not just theory.

* The sturdy furniture in the student lounge was pragmatic , but unattractive.

*

Nor indeed are these restrictions pragmatic'' in nature: i.e. the ill-formedness of the ''heed''-sentences in (60) is entirely different in kind from the oddity of sentences like:
(61)      !That man will eat any car which thinks he?s stupid
which is purely ''pragmatic (i.e. lies in the fact that (61) describes the kind of bizarre situation which just doesn?t happen in the world we are familiar with, where cars don?t think, and people don?t eat cars).

philosophical; dealing with causes, reasons, and effects, rather than with details and circumstances; said of literature.

* Sir W. Hamilton

Pragmatic history.

* M. Arnold

Pragmatic poetry.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Having purpose; intentional.

Having a purpose in mind; resolute; determined.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=November 10 , author=Jeremy Wilson , title= England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report , work=Telegraph citation , page= , passage=An utterly emphatic 5-0 victory was ultimately capped by two wonder strikes in the last two minutes from Aston Villa midfielder Gary Gardner. Before that, England had utterly dominated to take another purposeful stride towards the 2013 European Championship in Israel. They have already established a five-point buffer at the top of Group Eight. }}