Dictionary of Definitions of Terms Commonly Used in Math Lectures

CLEARLY:
I don’t want to write down all the “in- between” steps.

TRIVIAL:
If I have to show you how to do this, you’re in the wrong class.

OBVIOUSLY:
I hope you weren’t sleeping when we discussed this earlier, because I refuse to repeat it.

RECALL:
I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but for those of you who erase your memory tapes after every test…

WLOG (Without Loss Of Generality):
I’m not about to do all the possible cases, so I’ll do one and let you figure out the rest.

CHECK or CHECK FOR YOURSELF:
This is the boring part of the proof, so you can do it on your own time.

SKETCH OF A PROOF:
I couldn’t verify all the details, so I’ll break it down into the parts I couldn’t prove.

HINT:
The hardest of several possible ways to do a proof.

SOFT PROOF:
One third less filling (of the page) than your regular proof, but it requires two extra years of course work just to understand the terms.

ELEGANT PROOF:
Requires no previous knowledge of the subject matter and is less than ten lines long.

SIMILARLY:
At least one line of the proof of this case is the same as before.

CANONICAL FORM:
4 out of 5 mathematicians surveyed recommended this as the final form for their students who choose to finish.

BY A PREVIOUS THEOREM:
I don’t remember how it goes (come to think of it I’m not really sure we did this at all), but if I stated it right (or at all), then the rest of this follows.

TWO LINE PROOF:
I’ll leave out everything but the conclusion, you can’t question ’em if you can’t see ’em.

BRIEFLY:
I’m running out of time, so I’ll just write and talk faster.

LET’S TALK THROUGH IT:
I don’t want to write it on the board lest I make a mistake.

PROCEED FORMALLY:
Manipulate symbols by the rules without any hint of their true meaning (popular in pure math courses).

QUANTIFY:
I can’t find anything wrong with your proof except that it won’t work if x is a moon of Jupiter.

PROOF OMITTED:
Trust me, It’s true.

Thanks to Calculus Humor for this submission!

Source: http://www.calculushumor.com/3/post/2012/06/dictionary-of-definitions-of-terms-commonly-used-in-math-lectures.html