Dictionary

lexis en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈlɛksɪs/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-der. Proto-Indo-European *léǵ-e-ti Proto-Hellenic *légō Ancient Greek λέγω (légō) Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Hellenic *-tis Ancient Greek -τῐς (-tĭs) Ancient Greek -σῐς (-sĭs) Ancient Greek λέξῐς (léxĭs)lbor. English lexis Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek λέξις (léxis, “speech, word”).

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The set of all words and phrases in a language; any unified subset of words from a particular language.
   • Thus, alongside current lexis, words and senses now obsolete find a place in a dictionary on historical principles. 2018, James Lambert, “Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles”, in World Englishes, volume 37, page 249:
2. (countable, uncountable) Words, collocations, and common phrases in a language; vocabulary and word combinations.
   • By the 1980s, English language teachers generally had begun to realize that there had been a neglect of lexis in teaching methods and coursebooks. […] The basic truth that without vocabulary or lexis we can't express anything had to be restated and a new approach to teaching lexis was needed. 2014, Paul Lindsay, Teaching English Worldwide, page 346:
3. (countable, uncountable) The vocabulary used by a writer.
   • In this broadsheet newspaper, the reporter uses a complicated and formal lexis which I find hard to understand.

Forms

Coordinates

lexicon

Deriveds

dyslexia · hyperlexia · lexon

Relateds

lexicalize · lexeme · lexome · lexicalization