Meaning & Semantics
A set of words grouped by a shared theme or topic, like "cooking" or "emotions."
semantic field
Informal, often inventive vocabulary used by a specific social group.
slang
The smallest meaningful unit in a language (e.g., "un-", "break", "-able").
morpheme
The general process of creating new words.
word formation
The general term for forming a word by reducing a longer one.
shortening
The relationship between a general word (like "fruit") and a specific example of it (like "apple").
hyponym vs hyperonym
A word or phrase that is no longer in common use.
obsolete word or archaism
The analysis of a word into its hierarchical components synchronically (e.g., "un+break+able").
Immediate Constituent analysis
The most common word-formation process, involving the addition of prefixes or suffixes.
affixation
A shortened form of a word, like "ad" from "advertisement."
clipping/curtailment
A word with multiple related meanings, like "foot" of a bed vs. "foot" of a person.
polysemy
A newly coined word or expression.
neologism
The classification of morphemes as roots, prefixes, suffixes, etc.
structural classification of morphemes
The process of forming a word by combining two or more existing words.
compounding
An abbreviation formed from the initial letters of a phrase and pronounced as a word (e.g., NASA).
acronym
The specific, context-dependent meaning of a word in actual use.
pragmatic meaning
The specialized vocabulary used by people in a particular profession.
professionalism
The base of a word to which affixes can be attached.
stem
The process of changing a word's class without adding an affix (e.g., "email" noun to verb).
conversion
An abbreviation formed from initial letters and pronounced individually (e.g., FBI).
initialism
The relationship between concepts based on their shared features or close association.
similarity vs contiguity of meaning
A word or expression that has become overused and lost its original impact.
cliche
The diachronic analysis of a word's structure till constituents are incapable of further division.
Ultimate Constituent analysis
The property of a compound word where its meaning cannot be deduced from its parts (e.g., "hot dog").
idiomaticity
An acronym that has become so common it is used as a word and its origin is forgotten (e.g., "laser").
anacronym