Definition

1. Noun:
   • A minimal unit in the lexicon of a language: A lexeme is an abstract unit of meaning that encompasses all the different grammatical forms a word can take. It is the fundamental, dictionary-entry form of a word, distinct from its specific inflected or derived variants.

Usage

• A lexeme is the core concept behind related word forms. For example, the words "run," "runs," "ran," and "running" are all different surface forms that belong to the single English lexeme .
• In linguistic analysis, lexemes are the basic building blocks of a language's vocabulary (lexicon). Identifying lexemes helps in understanding how words are related and how meaning is structured.

Examples

• The forms "happy," "happier," and "happiest" are all part of the same lexeme, .
• The words "sing," "sings," "sang," "sung," and "singing" are considered different realizations of the single lexeme .
• In the dictionary, you look up the lexeme "go," not each of its forms like "went" or "going."

Advanced Usage

• Lexeme vs. Word Form: A "word form" is the specific shape a word takes in a given context (e.g., "books"). The "lexeme" is the abstract set that includes all such forms (e.g., ).
• Lexeme and Lemma: The "lemma" is the canonical form, or headword, used to represent a lexeme in a dictionary (e.g., "be" for the lexeme that includes "am, is, are, was, were, been, being").

Variants and Related Words

• Lexical (adj): Pertaining to the words or vocabulary of a language.
  • Lexical analysis focuses on the meaning of individual words and lexemes.
• Lexicon (n): The vocabulary of a language, or a dictionary.
  • The lexicon of a language contains all its lexemes.

Synonyms

• Lexical item: A word or phrase that functions as a single meaning unit in the lexicon.
• Lemma (in the context of dictionary headwords).

Related Concepts

• Morpheme: The smallest grammatical unit of meaning (e.g., "un-" and "happy" in "unhappy"). A lexeme can consist of one or more morphemes.
• Word Family: A group of words related to the same lexeme through derivation (e.g., "quick," "quickly," "quicken").

Noun

1. a minimal unit (as a word or stem) in the lexicon of a language; `go' and `went' and `gone' and `going' are all members of the English lexeme `go'