lexis
/ˈlɛksɪs/ noun, proper noun
Forms lexises lexes lexeis
- noun (linguistics) The set of all words and phrases in a language; any unified subset of words from a particular language.
- noun (pedagogy, TEFL) Words, collocations, and common phrases in a language; vocabulary and word combinations.
- noun The vocabulary used by a writer. “In this broadsheet newspaper, the reporter uses a complicated and formal lexis which I find hard to understand.”
- proper noun A female given name, variant of Alexis
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek λέξις (léxis, “speech, word”).
Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “lexis”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details