lemma en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /ˈlɪmə/ (pin-pen-merger)
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ˈlɛmə/ (General-American, UK)
- lĕm'ə (General-American, UK)
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek λῆμμᾰ (lêmmă, “premise, assumption”), from the same root as λᾰμβᾰ́νω (lămbắnō, “to take”).
Meanings
-
A proposition proved or accepted for immediate use in the proof of some other proposition.
"We finally did it, but we found the proof very, very hard," he [Dr. John Conway] said. "I remember my wife and I spending one entire afternoon just working on some tiny little lemmas involved in the proof."
1988 August 30, Malcolm W. Browne, “Intellectual Duel: Brash Challenge, Swift Response”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 23 Apr 2023:
- (broadly, in phrases) A proposition proved or accepted for immediate use in the proof of some other proposition. ▸ A proposition originally used for such a purpose, but having later acquired a greater, independent, importance; a fundamental (often pithy) and widely-used result.
-
The canonical form of an inflected word; i.e., the form usually found as the headword in a dictionary, such as the nominative singular of a noun, the bare infinitive of a verb, etc.
Cat is a lemma, but cats is not.
For quotations using this term, see Citations:lemma.
For the second sense, where "word" means "item that should have its own dictionary entry," lexicographers sometimes use the term "lemma," but that has other meanings too, so among linguists the term lexeme is now standard, and I'll use it. For the different forms or shapes that belong to a lexeme we can use the term word-form.
2024, Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Truth About English Grammar, Polity Press, →ISBN, page 17:Holonym: lexeme (holonymous sense)
- The theoretical abstract conceptual form of a word, representing a specific meaning, before the creation of a specific phonological form as the sounds of a lexeme, which may find representation in a specific written form as a dictionary or lexicographic word.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| lemmas | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| lemmata | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Antonyms
non-lemma (antonym(s) of)
Coordinates
Deriveds
Yao's lemma · Zorn's lemma · Stein's lemma · Urysohn's lemma · pumping lemma · Sperner's lemma · lemmatize · five lemma · Johnson-Lindenstrauss lemma · Riemann-Lebesgue lemma · Yoneda lemma · Neyman-Pearson lemma · Bézout's lemma · Tukey's lemma · Teichmüller-Tukey lemma · Euclid's lemma
Relateds
canonical form · headword · lemmatical · tetralemma · Margulis lemma · trilemma · sublemma · pentalemma · lemmatic · basic form · dictionary form · lemmatically · dilemma · infinitive · citation form
Synonyms
Translations (100)
ko 표제어 (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · fi apulause (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · cmn 詞條 /词条 (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · hu lexéma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · uz lemma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · ro lemă (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · fo leitorð (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · nn stikkord (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · pl lemma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · da hjælpesætning (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · vi mục từ (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · cs lemma (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · ar سُدَّة (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · hy լեմմա (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · da opslagsform (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · ru ле́мма (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · ca lema (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · sv uppslagsord (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · fr terme vedette (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · is fletta (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · hi प्रमेयिका (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · da lemma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · fa مدخل (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · cs lemma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · el λήμμα (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · hu segédtétel (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · sv lemma (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · mk лема (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · hu lemma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · af lemma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · nb lemma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · da opslagsord (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · io lemo (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · sk lema (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · ko 보조정리 (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · de Lemma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · ca lema (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · is flettiorð (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · ru ле́мма (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · fi lemma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · ja レンマ (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · fr mot vedette (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · de Stichwort (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · fr lemme (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · pl lemat (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · ar لِيمَّا (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · hu lemma (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · bn লেমা (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · bg ле́ма (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · pt lema (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · sk lema (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · cmn 詞元 /词元 (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · nb stikkord (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · nb oppslagsord (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · sv lemma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · he טענת עזר (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · fi perusmuoto (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · fi lemma (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · id lema (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · es lema (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · cmn 字詞 /字词 (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · ja 補題 (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · it lemma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · nl lemma (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · cmn 詞目 /词目 (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · hu szótári szó (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · nn lemma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · de Hilfssatz (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · es lema (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · nb lemma (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · hu lexikai egység (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · is hjálparsetning (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · da lemma (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · pt lema (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · nl lemma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · cmn 引理 (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · eo lemo (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · it lemma (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · he למה (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · nn oppslagsord (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · fr entrée (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · sv grundform (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · fr lemme (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · de Lemma (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · bg ле́ма (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · fo hjálparsetningur (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · hu kiegészítő tétel (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · ro lemă (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · ko 올림말 (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · nn lemma (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · mk лема (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · da stikord (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · is uppflettimynd (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · hu címszó (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · fa بنواژه (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · eo lemo (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · ar تَمْهِيدِيَّة (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition) · la lēmma (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · el λήμμα (linguistics: canonical form of a term) · bn লেমা (mathematics: proposition used mainly in the proof of some other proposition)