Pragmatic

From a pragmatic point of view, circular definitions may be characterized in terms of new, useful or helpful information:
A definition is deficient if the audience must either already know the meaning of the key term, or if the term to be
defined is used in the definition itself. Such definitions lead to a need for additional information that motivated
someone to look at the definition in the first place and, thus, violate the principle of providing new or useful
information.[1] Here are some examples:

Suppose we define "oak" as a tree which has catkins and grows from an acorn, and then define "acorn" as the nut
produced by an oak tree. To someone who does not know which trees are oaks, nor which nuts are acorns, the
definition is inadequate.

If someone wants to know what a cellular phone is, telling them that it is a "phone that is cellular" will not be especially
illuminating. Much more helpful would be to explain the concept of a cell in the context of telecommunications, or at
least to make some reference to portability.

Similarly, defining dialectical materialism as "materialism that involves dialectic" is unhelpful.

Consequently, when constructing systems of definitions, authors should use good practices that avoid producing
viciously circular definitions. In many learner's dictionaries, circular definitions are greatly reduced by writing definitions
using only the words in a constrained defining vocabulary.