''semantics'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''semantics'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260331180822-00-⌔

semantics - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

semantics (countable and uncountable, plural semantics)

• (linguistics) A branch of linguistics studying the meaning of words. [1893]
  • ✤ Holonym: linguistics
  • ✤ Meronyms: semasiology, onomasiology
  • ✤ Comeronyms: pragmatics, phonology, morphology, grammar
  • ✤ *lexical semantics *; *cognitive semantics *; *computational semantics *; *historical semantics *
  • ✤ * Semantics is a foundation of lexicography.*
• The study of the relationship between words and their meanings.
  • ✤ In fact, nowadays a lot is known about the semantics of natural languages, and it is surprisingly easy to build semantic representations which partially capture the meaning of sentences or even entire discourses.¹
• The meaning or set of meanings of a linguistic element, such as a word, morpheme or utterance.
  • ✤ In very ancient or poorly documented languages, the precise semantics of words tend to be uncertain.
  • The meanings of individual words, as opposed to the overall meaning of a passage.
    • ✤ The semantics of the terms used are debatable.
• (computer science) The meaning of computer language constructs, in contrast to their form or syntax.
  • ✤ *file sharing and locking semantics *
• (loosely, colloquial, of a detail or distinction) Pettiness or triviality.
  • ✤ Who cares? This is all just semantics!

Etymology

From French sémantique, displacing earlier semasiology. From Ancient Greek σημαντικός (sēmantikós). By surface analysis, semantic +‎ -ics.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sɪˈmæntɪks/
• Audio (Southern England): 🔊
• Audio (US): 🔊

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

1. 2006, Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos, Kristina Striegnitz, Learn Prolog Now! ‎${}^{[1]}$, archived from the original on 28 March 2015, section 8.1: ↩

Link to original

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