Word.ws English Dictionary

relexicalise

relexicalise is the alternative form of relexicalize.

Meaning of relexicalize

Verb

relexicalize (third-person singular simple present relexicalizes, present participle relexicalizing, simple past and past participle relexicalized)

  1. (transitive) To change the lexicon of; to use different words for.
    • For example, in British newspapers, […] the process of telling someone off or reprimanding them is relexicalized as 'rap'. To criticize strongly is to 'blast' or 'slam', and to investigate is to 'probe'.2013, Michael Higgins, Angela Smith, The Language of Journalism: A Multi-genre Perspective, page 71
  2. (transitive) To borrow or adopt back into a lexicon.
    • to relexicalize a word

Forms of relexicalise

third-person singular presentrelexicalises
present participlerelexicalising
past participlerelexicalised
pastrelexicalised

Questions about relexicalise

What is relexicalise the alternative form of?
Relexicalise is the alternative form of relexicalize.

Words near relexicalise in the dictionary

  1. relevying
  2. relevé
  3. relevés
  4. relex
  5. relexes
  6. relexicalise
  7. relexicalised
  8. relexicalises
  9. relexicalising
  10. relexicalization
  11. relexicalizations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: relexicalise (page history and authors); relexicalize (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: “relexicalise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/relexicalise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.