Lexis

Quick meaning: Lexis is a noun meaning (linguistics) The set of all words and phrases in a language; any unified subset of words from a particular language.

Meaning

(linguistics) The set of all words and phrases in a language; any unified subset of words from a particular language.

More Meanings

1. (pedagogy, TEFL) Words, collocations, and common phrases in a language; vocabulary and word combinations.
2. The vocabulary used by a writer.

Example Sentences

In this broadsheet newspaper, the reporter uses a complicated and formal lexis which I find hard to understand.

Thus, alongside current lexis, words and senses now obsolete find a place in a dictionary on historical principles.

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.

Word Forms

• lexises
• lexes
• lexeis

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include lexicon, lexicology, language, lexicography, syntax, lexicalism.

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