The reality is richer, more diffuse, and at a lower level of abstraction - if it is an abstraction at all. Reality may be rich and diffuse but it has regularities. We may not be able to tell precisely where the hill begins and the valley ends. In fact there is no single point where the valley ends and the hill begins. Nonetheless there are hills and valleys.
Words come before definitions.
The word is a label, an invention. It is a response to a felt regularity and arises from experience itself. The definition which follows is an attempt at analysis of what the word refers to. Analysis is not to be despised. It can be abused, particularly when words are substituted for the experience.