as in linguistic
of or relating to words or language
a dictionary provides lexical information—it tells you what the word "cat" means, not all there is to know about cats
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Recent Examples of lexical
Russian speakers in the experiment proved faster than English speakers at distinguishing shades that corresponded to that lexical distinction.
—
Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 23 Dec. 2024
Practically, then, the translator reads with an eye to understanding the affordances offered by a text—to re-creating its potentialities, rather than merely offering a lexical equivalent.
—Max Norman, The New Yorker, 7 Dec. 2024
The lexical gap, where untranslatable words are found in one language but not others, can be easily filled by simply borrowing these words, OED executive editor Danica Salazar wrote in the update.
—Peter Guo, NBC news, 27 Mar. 2025
Russian speakers in the experiment proved faster than English speakers at distinguishing shades that corresponded to that lexical distinction.
—Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 23 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for lexical
Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 23 Dec. 2024
Practically, then, the translator reads with an eye to understanding the affordances offered by a text—to re-creating its potentialities, rather than merely offering a lexical equivalent.
—Max Norman, The New Yorker, 7 Dec. 2024
The lexical gap, where untranslatable words are found in one language but not others, can be easily filled by simply borrowing these words, OED executive editor Danica Salazar wrote in the update.
—Peter Guo, NBC news, 27 Mar. 2025
Russian speakers in the experiment proved faster than English speakers at distinguishing shades that corresponded to that lexical distinction.
—Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 23 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for lexical
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lexical
Adjective
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Meso-Collaboration: AI can empower communities and organizations to collaborate more effectively across geographical and linguistic barriers, fostering diverse and innovative problem-solving.—
Cornelia C. Walther,
Forbes.com,
19 May 2025
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Significantly, this executive order revokes a previous one, issued by President Bill Clinton, which mandated that the federal government offer linguistic access to people with limited English proficiency.—
Graciela Mochkofsky,
New Yorker,
19 May 2025
Adjective
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And also, similar to the suggestion for No. 1, consider creating safe words or a verbal challenge/response procedure.—
Perry Carpenter,
Forbes.com,
22 May 2025
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But despite months of verbal support from state leaders, no new funding has materialized.—
Leslie S. Richards,
Chicago Tribune,
22 May 2025
Adjective
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This open dialogue and communicative environment has had such a positive impact on Celebree’s results and has become my favorite way to kick off the week.—
Richard Huffman,
Forbes.com,
14 May 2025
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The sophisticated parsing of law and finance, the hard-nosed practicality of retail politics, and the workaday lilt of person-in-the-street interviews converge on the soundtrack and are reflected in images that are modestly but candidly communicative—uninflected but humming with passion.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
23 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Lexical.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lexical. Accessed 2 Jun. 2025.
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