word
IPA: wˈɝd
noun
- The smallest unit of language that has a particular meaning and can be expressed by itself; the smallest discrete, meaningful unit of language. (contrast morpheme.)
- The smallest discrete unit of spoken language with a particular meaning, composed of one or more phonemes and one or more morphemes
- The smallest discrete unit of written language with a particular meaning, composed of one or more letters or symbols and one or more morphemes
- A discrete, meaningful unit of language approved by an authority or native speaker (compare non-word).
- Something like such a unit of language:
- A sequence of letters, characters, or sounds, considered as a discrete entity, though it does not necessarily belong to a language or have a meaning
- (telegraphy) A unit of text equivalent to five characters and one space.
- (computing) A fixed-size group of bits handled as a unit by a machine and which can be stored in or retrieved from a typical register (so that it has the same size as such a register).
- (computer science) A finite string that is not a command or operator.
- (group theory) A group element, expressed as a product of group elements.
- The fact or act of speaking, as opposed to taking action. .
- (now rare outside certain phrases) Something that someone said; a comment, utterance; speech.
- (obsolete outside certain phrases) A watchword or rallying cry, a verbal signal (even when consisting of multiple words).
- (obsolete) A proverb or motto.
- (uncountable) News; tidings.
- An order; a request or instruction; an expression of will.
- A promise; an oath or guarantee.
- A brief discussion or conversation.
- (meiosis) A minor reprimand.
- (in the plural) See words.
- (theology, sometimes Word) Communication from God; the message of the Christian gospel; the Bible, Scripture.
- (theology, sometimes Word) Logos, Christ.
- Scripture; the Bible.
- The creative word of God; Logos.
- (software) Microsoft Word, word processor software developed by Microsoft.
verb
- (transitive) To say or write (something) using particular words; to phrase (something).
- (transitive, obsolete) To flatter with words, to cajole.
- (transitive) To ply or overpower with words.
- (transitive, rare) To conjure with a word.
- (intransitive, archaic) To speak, to use words; to converse, to discourse.
- Alternative form of worth (“to become”). [(obsolete, except in set phrases or dialectal) To be, become, betide.]
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Examples of "word" in Sentences
- Use an asterix before and after a word to make it bold. *word*
- Use an underscore before and after a word to show it in italics. _word
- Do not make the last word of each line _emphatic_, unless it is really an _emphatic word_.
- There is an important and very common use of the word ˜word™ that lexicographers and the rest of us use frequently.
- In practice, an adverb is often used to qualify a remote word, where the latter is _more emphatic than any nearer word_.
- _Brackets_ include a word or words mentioned as a matter of discourse, as, _The little word_ [man] _makes a great noise_, &c.
- At length Cameron stood up, and said to his men in a quiet tone, "Be ready, lads, for instant action; when I give the word ` Up, 'spring to your feet and cock your guns, but _don't fire a shot till you get the word_."
- If this were the correct derivation, we should expect to find _sinecere_, for the _e_ would scarcely be dropped; just as we have the English word _sinecure_, which is the only compound of the preposition _sine_ I know; and is itself _not a Latin word_, but of a later coinage.
- In one of the most remarkable of his lyrics (like this poem, a song of spring), Tennyson has come very near, as near perhaps as it is possible to do in words, towards explaining the actual process through which poetry comes into existence: _The fairy fancies range, and lightly stirr'd, Ring little bells of change from word to word_.
- The true word of a Mason is, not the entire, perfect, absolute truth in regard to God; but the highest and noblest conception of Him that our minds are capable of forming; and this _word_ is Ineffable, because one man cannot communicate to another his own conception of Deity; since every man's conception of God must be proportioned to his mental cultivation, and intellectual powers, and moral excellence.
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