I believe that it is important to be pedantic with definitions. A while back I switched my default search engine to DuckDuckGo and noticed that its built-in dictionary engine was not as strong as Google's.
For instance a search for define racism yields the following top definition with DuckDuckGo:
The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
but this one with Google:
the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.
I am of the belief these 2 definitions vary enough to dismay the word as a whole. The result, in certain situations, is that individual people or parties have varying (and perhaps conflicting) understandings of the word.
I have found that referring to the etymology of a word (particulary with etymonline.com) has made it easier to have deeper and richer conversations that are also more correct. See https://www.etymonline.com/word/racism. Understanding the origin of a word and how it has developed helps with gaining a deeper understanding of its meaning. I find that many arguments are caused by lack of cohesion in definition and that clarifying meaning with etymology helps with that.
Barring all this there is still something to be said about interpretation and creativity here. Read about limitations and fallacies of definition on Wikipedia: Limitations of definition, Fallacies of definition.