desemanticize

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verb

To remove semantic content from; (especially) to cause to undergo desemanticization.

Scrabble 27
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Meanings

verbdesemanticize (third-person singular simple present desemanticizes, present participle desemanticizing, simple past and past participle desemanticized)

present singular third person desemanticizes · participle present desemanticizing · participle past desemanticized · past desemanticized

  1. To remove semantic content from; (especially) to cause to undergo desemanticization.
  2. rareTo lose semantic content; to undergo desemanticization.

    The purposive meaning desemanticizes and a new marker is drafted in to reinforce the purposive meaning.

    2011, Michael T. Putnam, Studies on German-Language Islands, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 406
    1 more example

    […] that of preceding and modifying another word, and in gaining the new grammatical meaning of modification. They desemanticise, in losing the descriptive meaning that head nouns have in descriptive use, […]

    2011, Jim Feist, Premodifiers in English: Their Structure and Significance, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 232
Cite this entry
APA

desemanticize. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/desemanticize

MLA

“desemanticize.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/desemanticize. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “desemanticize,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/desemanticize.

Source: desemanticize on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.