lexicon means the vocabulary of a language. It carries an Arena rating of 1343, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, lexicon ranks #7,100 of 14,440 for Most Satisfying to Say, #7,170 of 14,448 for Most Incisive Words, #7,180 of 14,444 for Most Exacting Words, #7,181 of 14,451 for Most Whimsical Words.
lexicon is pronounced /ˈlɛk.sɪ.kən/.
Why “lexicon” is a great word
The complete, systematic inventory of words belonging to a language, a field of knowledge, or an individual mind, and also the book that catalogs such a collection. From Byzantine Greek λεξικόν (lexikón, "a dictionary"), an ellipsis of Ancient Greek λεξικὸν βιβλίον (lexikòn biblíon, "word book"), from λεξικός (lexikós, "of words"), from λέξις (léxis, "speech, word"), from λέγω (légō, "to speak, gather"), from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- ("to gather, collect"). Attested in English since 1583 in the sense 'a dictionary of a classical language'. Unlike "vocabulary," which suggests a personal or contextual subset, or "dictionary," which specifies a physical reference work, a lexicon is the abstract totality, the gathered harvest of a tongue. It is the scholar's crumbling tome of Attic Greek, the technical jargon humming in the server room, and the private, fading catalogue of childhood names for things—the silent architecture of every possible thought, a testament to the human impulse to collect what would otherwise scatter.
Etymology
Through Middle French or directly from New Latin lexicon, from Byzantine Greek λεξικόν (lexikón, “a lexicon, a dictionary”), ellipsis from Ancient Greek λεξικὸν βιβλίον (lexikòn biblíon, literally “a book of words”), from λεξικός (lexikós, “of words”), from λέξις (léxis, “a saying, speech, word”), from λέγω (légō, “to speak”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather, collect”).
Attested at least since 1583 (in William Fulke's A Defense of the Sincere and True Translations of the Holy Scriptures into the English tongue) in the sense 'a dictionary of a classical language'.
noun
- The vocabulary of a language.“Formalism seeks to correct this deficiency by translating verbal texts into formal, mathematizable lexicons which are then manipulated into general propositions.”
- A dictionary that includes or focuses on lexemes.“Sluiter examines a tension inherent in such scholarly works as lexica, scholia, epitomai, and commentaries: although the very titles of these works claim no more than secondary status, their authors engage nonetheless in a rhetoric of self-legitimation.”
- A dictionary of Classical Greek, Hebrew, Latin, or Aramaic.
- The lexicology of a programming language. (Usually called lexical structure.)
- Any dictionary.
- The vocabulary used by or known to an individual. (Also called lexical knowledge.)
- A set of vocabulary specific to a certain subject.“the baseball lexicon”
- A set of vocabulary specific to a certain subject.; A list thereof.“a baseball lexicon”
verb
- To add to a lexicon.“Vocab-wise, medalling and PB-ing are now totally part-and-parcelled, and most experts in South Korea believe podiumed, finalled and all-comered are not far off lexiconing.”
- To shorten a soundtrack to fit a shortened version of a movie.“Mrazek’s legislation would discourage time compression, a technique used to speed up a movie, and “lexiconing,” a process of altering the soundtrack to match the shorter, compressed version.”
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