semantic
adjective
Simple meaning
Related to the study of language meaning.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sihmantikSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
sɪˈmæntɪk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Of or relating to semantics or the meanings of words.
slangof a detail or distinction
Petty or trivial; (of a person or statement) quibbling, niggling.
software designof code
Reflecting intended structure and meaning.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Academic
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of or relating to semantics or the meanings of words.
Used this way, semantic is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use semantic
- “The change in word order subtly shifted the semantic meaning.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The study of language meaning.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Your memory for meanings and general (impersonal) facts.
A relation between meanings.
The underlying relation that a constituent has with the main verb in a clause.
An error in logic or arithmetic that must be detected at run time.
The branch of semantics that studies the meanings and relations of words.
The branch of semantics that studies the cognitive aspects of meaning.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.