Lexicography and Word Meaning

The primary purpose of a dictionary is to provide definitions for words, helping users understand their meaning and usage.

A thesaurus is not a type of dictionary as it does not provide definitions for words, but rather lists synonyms and antonyms.

Semantics is the study of word meanings and how they are used in language.

Grammatical meaning refers to the function of a word in a sentence, not its inherent meaning.

Semantic shift refers to the change in meaning of a word over time.

Smartphone is a relatively new word that was coined in the 21st century.

A polysemous word is a word that has multiple meanings, often related to each other.

Bank has two different meanings, one referring to a financial institution and the other to a riverbank.

An antonym is a word that has the opposite meaning of another word.

Happy and Sad are antonyms as they represent opposite emotional states.

A synonym is a word that has a similar meaning to another word.

Big and Large are synonyms as they both refer to something of considerable size.

A euphemism is a word or phrase that is used to refer to a taboo subject in a less offensive way.

Passed away is a euphemism for died, used to make the subject of death less distressing.

A dysphemism is a word or phrase that is used to refer to a taboo subject in a more offensive way.

Kicked the bucket is a dysphemism for died, used to make the subject of death more vulgar.