lexico-, lexi-, lex-, -lexia, -lexias, -lexic, -lectic, -lexis

The act, process, art, or work involved in the process of writing or compiling a dictionary or dictionaries.

A reference to the the gathering of content and the production of a dictionary: "A new lexicographic edition will be published sometime next year."

Pertaining to the organization and production of dictionaries: "Janine's friend got a job with a lexicographical publisher to create a new style of dictionary that makes it easier for users to understand the definitions without using another form of the word entry to define it."

1. An excessive reverence or devotion to the authority of dictionaries.
2. Etymology: literally, "the worship of dictionaries" or an excessively strong feeling of respect and admiration for dictionaries.

The art or practice of organizing, composing, and publishing dictionaries.

A reference to the study of the forms, meanings, and the usages of words: "Tony's class assignment was to determine the lexicological concepts of a group of word entries provided by several dictionaries."

Someone who studies the meanings and origins of words.

A branch of linguistics dealing with the use and meanings of words and the relationships between various structures of vocabulary: "Lexicology involves the study of words, their nature and meanings, word elements, semantic relations, word groups, and even whole dictionaries."

A dictionary lover or someone who loves looking up words in dictionaries: "John is still a lexicomane who has a special fondness and strong interest in researching dictionaries so he can increase his personal vocabulary knowledge."

A crazy or excessive desire for studying and collecting dictionaries; sometimes resulting in an abnormal fondness for them.

1. A dictionary or reference book with an alphabetized listing of words and their meanings; especially, one dealing with an ancient language: Suzannah found a wonderful lexicon for her Greek studies in her favorite bookstore.

In addition to its basic function of defining words, a lexicon, or dictionary, may provide information about their pronunciations, grammatical forms and functions, etymologies, syntactic peculiarities, variant spellings, and synonyms and antonyms.

2. The special vocabulary of a particular author, field of study, etc.: Mr. Roberts wrote a definitive lexicon for those studying linguistics and word origins.

In a technical sense, a lexicon is "the whole vocabulary, the supply of words or meaningful units in a language".

One can say that the total lexicon of English has never yet been recorded in even the biggest dictionaries and is now so vast that it can't be known to any one person or publication.

The lexicon of a language is constantly changing, by loss or deletion of words, and by addition of new words. As cultures change, lexicons change. They are mirrors of human thoughts and behaviors.

A dictionary, or lexicon, may also provide quotations illustrating a word’s use, and these are sometimes dated to show the earliest known uses of a word in past specified concepts.

The lexicon of all languages appears to be expanding exponentially due to the vast communications network that is available now for so many people.

3. Etymology: from modern Latin, from Greek lexikon (bibilion, "book") of "words"; from lexis, "word" + legein, "to speak, to say". © ALL rights are reserved.

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Someone who compiles a dictionary or dictionaries.

To compile a collection of alphabetized words into the form of a dictionary: John and Virginia have been working together to lexiconize thousands of words for this Word Info site.

A person who collects dictionaries and related books about words because he or she has a fondness for vocabulary: The author of this extensive dictionary had a library full of different lexica, encyclopaedias, glossaries, and word lists for doing his research, and so he was certainly a lexiconophilist!

An excessive anxiety about having to go to a dictionary for information; perhaps because of some degree of illiteracy, dyslexia, or for some other linguistic issue: "Willie had lexicophobia in that he hated to look up any anything in a dictionary; probably, because he had a simple lack of sufficient motivation to go to the trouble of looking up words."

"Margaret's lexicophobia existed because she was so frustrated about dictionaries using another form of the same word being defined; such as, when she looked up the word manicurist in more than one dictionary, they all indicated that a manicurist is someone who manicures.