dislexify
dislexify verb: to distinguish different meanings using separate words, as opposed to colexifying them with a single polysemous word.
Verb
dislexify (third-person singular simple present dislexifies, present participle dislexifying, simple past and past participle dislexified)
- To distinguish different meanings using separate words, as opposed to colexifying them with a single polysemous word
- A language dislexifies two senses if it must express them using different lexical forms. Thus, Spanish dislexifies the two senses ‘wood as material’ (madera) and ‘firewood’ (leña). […] In sum, the two senses in question are dislexified in Spanish, but colexified in English. […] A language may...2022 June 9, Alexandre François, “Lexical tectonics: Mapping structural change in patterns of lexification”, in Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft, page 95
- Synonyms:
- distinguish
Synonyms of dislexify
Antonyms
Forms of dislexify
| third-person singular present | dislexifies |
|---|---|
| present participle | dislexifying |
| past participle | dislexified |
| past | dislexified |
Origin of dislexify
From dis- + lexify.
Questions about dislexify
- What does dislexify mean?
- Dislexify means to distinguish different meanings using separate words, as opposed to colexifying them with a single polysemous word.
- What part of speech is dislexify?
- Dislexify is a verb.
- What is the past tense of dislexify?
- The past tense of dislexify is dislexified.
Words near dislexify in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dislexify (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “dislexify.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dislexify. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.