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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

frankenword en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • frăngkʹ(ə)n-wûrd' (US)
  • /ˈfɹæŋkn̩ˌwɜː(ɹ)d/ (UK)
  • /ˈfɹæŋk(ə)nˌwɝd/ (US)

Etymology

From franken- + word.

Meanings

  1. A word formed by combining two (or more) other words.
    • A combination of "salvation" and "sacrifice," the coinage "salvific" does not necessarily flow trippingly from the tongue, but the monograph hardly needs a frankenword to make the case for the enduring relationship between African-American letters and racial uplift. 2009 Fall, Ann duCille, “Marriage, Family, and Other" Peculiar Institutions" in African-American Literary History”, in American Literary History, volume 21, number 3, →DOI:
    • Noun phrase identification is extremely time consuming and may incorrectly process new words that emerge during a debate, eg frankenwords invented during the genetically modified food debate. 2007 February 1, M. Thelwall, R. Prabowo, “Identifying and characterising public science-related fears from RSS feeds”, in Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, volume 58, number 3:
    • But what's noteworthy is the smorgasbord of new vocabulary, including 'frankenwords' (words joined to create new words) which deal with everyday situations. 2005 December 15, Ruma Singh, “Know some good frankenwords?”, in Bangalore Times:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
frankenwords Number=Plur lexicographic
Frankenword alternative lexicographic

Relateds

Frankenstein · Frankenfish · frankenfood

Synonyms

portmanteau · portmanteau word · blend · portmantologism