Word.ws English Dictionary

lexis

/ˈlɛksɪs/

lexis noun: the set of all words and phrases in a language; any unified subset of words from a particular language.

Noun

lexis (countable and uncountable, plural lexises or lexes or lexeis)

  1. The set of all words and phrases in a language; any unified subset of words from a particular language.
    • Thus, alongside current lexis, words and senses now obsolete find a place in a dictionary on historical principles.2018, James Lambert, “Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles”, in World Englishes, volume 37, page 249
  2. Words, collocations, and common phrases in a language; vocabulary and word combinations.
    • By the 1980s, English language teachers generally had begun to realize that there had been a neglect of lexis in teaching methods and coursebooks. […] The basic truth that without vocabulary or lexis we can't express anything had to be restated and a new approach to teaching lexis was needed.2014, Paul Lindsay, Teaching English Worldwide, page 346
  3. The vocabulary used by a writer.
    • In this broadsheet newspaper, the reporter uses a complicated and formal lexis which I find hard to understand.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Lexis

Lexis

  1. (plural) plural of Lexi

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Lexis

Lexis (plural Lexises)

  1. A female given name, variant of Alexis

Examples of lexis in a sentence

  • What this means is that academic interest in Indian English lexis has been largely confined to "Indianisms".
  • Thus 23.7% of the lexis covered consists of encyclopaedic material.
  • Goffin is a prose text interspersed with short lists of typical terms exemplifying certain sub-classes of Indian English lexis.

All 10 example sentences with lexis

Forms of lexis

Noun
plurallexises
plurallexes
plurallexeis
Proper noun
pluralLexises

Origin of lexis

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek λέξις (léxis, “speech, word”).

Words formed from lexis

Words that rhyme with lexis

Questions about lexis

What does lexis mean?
Lexis means the set of all words and phrases in a language; any unified subset of words from a particular language.
What part of speech is lexis?
Lexis can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce lexis?
Lexis is pronounced /ˈlɛksɪs/ (UK).
What is the plural of lexis?
The plural of lexis is lexises.

Words near lexis in the dictionary

  1. lexiphanicism
  2. lexiphanicisms
  3. lexiphanics
  4. lexiphone
  5. lexiphones
  6. lexis
  7. lexises
  8. Lexit
  9. Lexiteer
  10. Lexiteers
  11. Lexiter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lexis (page history and authors); Lexis (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lexis.wav.

Cite this entry: “lexis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lexis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.