Lexicon

How to spell lexicon

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce lexicon

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lexicon mean?

1. nounThe complete set of words used in a language, a field, or by a particular person or group.
2. nounA dictionary, especially one for a classical or specialised language.

Lexicon in a sentence

• Legal jargon had crept into her everyday lexicon.

• The scholar consulted an ancient Greek lexicon to translate the inscription.

• The slang of online gaming has its own rapidly changing lexicon.

• Every medical student keeps a lexicon of anatomical terms on the desk.

Where does lexicon come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes almost unchanged from the Greek lexikon, a shortening of the phrase lexikon biblion, which literally meant 'word-book'. The adjective lexikos meant 'of or relating to words', and it was built on lexis, meaning 'a word' or 'a way of speaking', which in turn grew from the verb legein, 'to speak' or 'to say'. English took the word in the early 1600s, first as a learned term for a dictionary of Greek, Hebrew, or another classical language, before it broadened to mean the whole stock of words in a language or in one person's use. The same legein root threads through a surprising family of English words, including 'dialect', 'lexical', and even 'logic' by way of the related noun logos. Because the word arrived straight from Greek rather than through Latin or French, it keeps the tidy Greek shape lexic- plus -on, which is the easiest way to remember that it ends in -con and not -con-sounding alternatives.

How the word is built

• lexic- (from Greek lexis: word, speech)
• -on (noun suffix, originally from 'lexikon biblion': word-book)