Yes, it's that specific. It's absolutely that specific. It would be good-if you're only trying to teach students the meaning of words. And this is the case when you native speakers. They need to just say stimulate means and you give a meaning and a definition.
But for English language learners, it's different. Because we want students not just to understand their text. This is where I was going with your question. But to be able to use the words in production. And we have been ignoring word use for a long time. And teachers really need to support the way students actually use words.
So when students are going to be talking about the text, they need to know how to use the words. A really good activity for doing that, for teaching students how to use new words, is to give students a word bank and then to talk about the words and how they're used in the text.
And then to talk about how the teacher uses the words. Then to give the students the words, the definitions and a model sentence. And say: turn to your partner and I would like you to use some of the words we've discussed in describing X, Y, or Z.