Meanings
plural lexical items
- human sciencesA term (that is, a word or sequence of words) that acts as a unit of meaning, including words, phrases, phrasal verbs, and proverbs.
The meaning of lexical items may be described in terms of combinations of semantic features.
2007, Kristel Proost ·, Conceptual Structure in Lexical Items, page 1144 more examples
He also realized that by comparing different types of text you may be able to spot "a different density ( repetition rate ) of lexical items, and different degrees of cohesion, in the short story and in the novel.
1993, Roman Kopytko, Polite Discourse in Shakespeare's English, page 396It is not surprising that this is a very common structure in language, because it allows the flexibility that was identified earlier in this paper as essential for an adequate lexical item.
1998, Edda Weigand, Contrastive Lexical Semantics, page 22A lexical item, or lexeme, is a dictionary word, an item which you would expect to find having its own entry in a dictionary.
1999, Robert Lawrence Trask, Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 228Thus there are 3751 lexical items covered in total. Taking into account polysemy, there are 4315 separate senses.
2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 490
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Translations
Chinese Mandarin 詞項 /词项
- 詞項 /词项 (cíxiàng)term that acts as a unit of meaning
Czech lexikální jednotka
- lexikální jednotkaterm that acts as a unit of meaning
Dutch lexicale eenheid
- lexicale eenheidterm that acts as a unit of meaning
Finnish leksikaalinen yksikkö
- leksikaalinen yksikköterm that acts as a unit of meaning
French lexie
- lexieterm that acts as a unit of meaning
German lexikalische Einheit, Wortschatzeinheit
- lexikalische Einheitterm that acts as a unit of meaning
- Wortschatzeinheitterm that acts as a unit of meaning
Irish mír fhoclóireachta, aonad léacsach
- mír fhoclóireachtaterm that acts as a unit of meaning
- aonad léacsachterm that acts as a unit of meaning
Japanese 語彙項目
- 語彙項目 (goi kōmoku)term that acts as a unit of meaning
Polish jednostka leksykalna
- jednostka leksykalnaterm that acts as a unit of meaning
Russian лекси́ческая едини́ца, лекси́ческий элеме́нт
- лекси́ческая едини́ца (leksíčeskaja jediníca)term that acts as a unit of meaning
- лекси́ческий элеме́нт (leksíčeskij elemént)term that acts as a unit of meaning
Vietnamese đơn vị từ vựng
- đơn vị từ vựngterm that acts as a unit of meaning
Cite this entry
lexical item. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lexical%20item
“lexical item.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lexical%20item. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lexical item,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lexical%20item.
Source: lexical item on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.