Dictionary

lexicalize en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈlɛksɪkəlaɪz/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English lexical Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English lexicalize From lexical + -ize.

Meanings

1. (intransitive, of a term) To become part of the vocabulary of a language as a single lexical unit with a distinct meaning.
2. (transitive) To accept a term into one's own vocabulary as a distinct lexical unit.
   • In fact, the child will lexicalize one, two, or three elements of the semantic representation according to his lexicalization span. 1975, Eric H. Lenneberg, Elizabeth Lenneberg, Foundations of Language Development: A Multidisciplinary Approach, volume 1, page 192:

Forms

Deriveds

unlexicalized · lexicalizable · relexicalize · mislexicalize · nonlexicalized · lexicalizer

Relateds

lexicon · lexical item · lexeme · lexicalisation · lexicology · lexicalization · lexis · lexicography · lexical unit

Translations (12)

hu lexikalizál (to convert to a single lexical unit) · ca lexicalitzar (to convert to a single lexical unit) · fr lexicaliser (to convert to a single lexical unit) · pl zleksykalizować (to convert to a single lexical unit) · da leksikalisere (to convert to a single lexical unit) · de lexikalisieren (to convert to a single lexical unit) · ru лексикализова́ть (to convert to a single lexical unit) · cs lexikalizovat (to convert to a single lexical unit) · es lexicalizar (to convert to a single lexical unit) · pl leksykalizować (to convert to a single lexical unit) · ru лексикализо́вывать (to convert to a single lexical unit) · cmn 词汇化 (to convert to a single lexical unit)