lexis

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-der. Proto-Indo-European *léǵ-e-ti Proto-Hellenic *légō Ancient Greek λέγω (légō) Proto-Indo-European *-tis Ancient Greek -τις (-tis) Ancient Greek -σῐς (-sĭs) Ancient Greek λέξῐς (léxĭs)lbor. English lexis Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek λέξις (léxis, “speech, word”).

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.”

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.”

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.”