Word.ws English Dictionary

dislexification

dislexification noun: the linguistic pattern whereby a given language must encode separate meanings using separate words, as opposed to colexifying them with a single polysemous word.

Noun

dislexification (countable and uncountable, plural dislexifications)

  1. The linguistic pattern whereby a given language must encode separate meanings using separate words, as opposed to colexifying them with a single polysemous word.
    • This pattern of dislexification {arm ≠ hand} has been preserved intact in modern Romance languages, all of which contrast ‘arm’ vs. ‘hand’.2022 June 9, Alexandre François, “Lexical tectonics: Mapping structural change in patterns of lexification”, in Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft, page 97

Synonyms of dislexification

Antonyms

Forms of dislexification

pluraldislexifications

Origin of dislexification

By surface analysis, dis- + lexi- + -ification.

Questions about dislexification

What does dislexification mean?
Dislexification means the linguistic pattern whereby a given language must encode separate meanings using separate words, as opposed to colexifying them with a single polysemous word.
What part of speech is dislexification?
Dislexification is a noun.
What is the plural of dislexification?
The plural of dislexification is dislexifications.

Words near dislexification in the dictionary

  1. disleal
  2. disleave
  3. disleaved
  4. disleaves
  5. disleaving
  6. dislexification
  7. dislexified
  8. dislexifies
  9. dislexify
  10. dislexifying
  11. Disley

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dislexification (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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