lexical

lexical — adjective

1. relating to a language's words and their meanings, including how they naturally

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

relating to a language's words and their meanings, including how they naturally combine with one another

Example

Abigail's lexical errors mostly involved using the wrong preposition with common verbs.

collocation: lexical error / lexical item

Jisoo keeps a notebook of new lexical items she finds while reading English news.

Common collocations
  • lexical item
  • lexical error
  • lexical choice
  • lexical meaning
  • lexical phrase
  • lexical knowledge
  • lexical difference
Synonyms
  • vocabulary-related

    less formal, used in language-teaching contexts

  • word-level

    narrower; used in linguistics for phenomena at the word rather than sentence level

  • linguistic

    broader; covers grammar, sounds, and meaning together

Antonyms
  • grammatical

    focuses on sentence structure rather than individual word meanings

Grammar Patterns

lexical + noun

Usage Note

Used only before a noun (attributive position). You cannot say 'This meaning is lexical' to mean 'this relates to words' — use 'This is a lexical meaning' instead.

Common Mistakes

She has good lexical' (using 'lexical' as a noun).
She has a good lexical knowledge of French.
Lexical is an adjective, not a noun.

2. connected with dictionaries, lexicons, or the practice of writing and compiling

2.adjectiveC1
Definition

connected with dictionaries, lexicons, or the practice of writing and compiling reference works about words

Example

This dictionary's lexical entries include word origins, pronunciation, and usage notes.

collocation: lexical entry

Asher consulted several lexical databases to trace the earliest use of the word.

collocation: lexical database

Common collocations
  • lexical entry
  • lexical database
  • lexical resource
  • lexical tradition
  • lexical information
Synonyms

Grammar Patterns

lexical + noun

Usage Note

Frequently appears in academic writing about lexicography and language studies. The related noun 'lexicon' (a word-store or dictionary) shares the same root.

Word family

  • lexicon
    nounC1
  • lexicography
    nounC1
  • lexicographer
    nounC1
  • lexicographic
    adjectiveC1
  • lexis
    nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Lexical focuses specifically on the words of a language as individual units with meanings, forms, and combinatorial behaviour. Vocabulary-related is a looser, non-technical term used in classroom settings (e.g. 'vocabulary-related exercises'). Linguistic is much broader — it covers grammar, phonetics, syntax, and pragmatics alongside words. Terminological refers only to the specialised terms of a field (e.g. 'terminological issues in medical writing') rather than everyday words. In practice, 'lexical error' and 'linguistic error' differ: a lexical error picks the wrong word, while a linguistic error could involve tense or word order. A vocabulary-related exercise might ask students to match words with pictures; a lexical study would examine how those words pattern with other words.

lexical ↗vocabulary-relatedlinguistic ↗terminological

Common collocations

Nouns

  • lexical analysis
  • lexical field
  • lexical form
  • lexical item
  • lexical set
  • lexical unit

Etymology

GreekLatinFrenchEnglish

Lexical comes from the Greek word lexis (λέξις), meaning 'word' or 'speech', which itself comes from legein (λέγειν), 'to speak'. The Greek adjective lexikos (λεξικός) passed into Late Latin as lexicus and then entered English through French and scholarly Latin during the 19th century, when linguistics was developing as a formal discipline.