"multi-word expression" meaning in English

See multi-word expression in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: multi-word expressions [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|multi-word expressions}} multi-word expression (plural multi-word expressions)
  1. (linguistics) A lexeme-like unit made up of a sequence of two or more words that has properties that are not predictable from the properties of the individual words or their normal mode of combination, such as an idiom ("pay the piper"), a phrasal noun ("steam iron"), a phrasal preposition ("in front of"), or a phrasal verb ("buy off"). Categories (topical): Linguistics
    Sense id: en-multi-word_expression-en-noun-rF895YaC Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for multi-word expression meaning in English (1.8kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "multi-word expressions",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "multi-word expressions"
      },
      "expansion": "multi-word expression (plural multi-word expressions)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Linguistics",
          "orig": "en:Linguistics",
          "parents": [
            "Language",
            "Social sciences",
            "Communication",
            "Sciences",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A lexeme-like unit made up of a sequence of two or more words that has properties that are not predictable from the properties of the individual words or their normal mode of combination, such as an idiom (\"pay the piper\"), a phrasal noun (\"steam iron\"), a phrasal preposition (\"in front of\"), or a phrasal verb (\"buy off\")."
      ],
      "id": "en-multi-word_expression-en-noun-rF895YaC",
      "links": [
        [
          "linguistics",
          "linguistics"
        ],
        [
          "lexeme",
          "lexeme"
        ],
        [
          "sequence",
          "sequence"
        ],
        [
          "predictable",
          "predictable"
        ],
        [
          "idiom",
          "idiom"
        ],
        [
          "phrasal noun",
          "phrasal noun"
        ],
        [
          "phrasal preposition",
          "phrasal preposition"
        ],
        [
          "phrasal verb",
          "phrasal verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(linguistics) A lexeme-like unit made up of a sequence of two or more words that has properties that are not predictable from the properties of the individual words or their normal mode of combination, such as an idiom (\"pay the piper\"), a phrasal noun (\"steam iron\"), a phrasal preposition (\"in front of\"), or a phrasal verb (\"buy off\")."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "multi-word expression"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "multi-word expressions",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "multi-word expressions"
      },
      "expansion": "multi-word expression (plural multi-word expressions)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "en:Linguistics"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A lexeme-like unit made up of a sequence of two or more words that has properties that are not predictable from the properties of the individual words or their normal mode of combination, such as an idiom (\"pay the piper\"), a phrasal noun (\"steam iron\"), a phrasal preposition (\"in front of\"), or a phrasal verb (\"buy off\")."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "linguistics",
          "linguistics"
        ],
        [
          "lexeme",
          "lexeme"
        ],
        [
          "sequence",
          "sequence"
        ],
        [
          "predictable",
          "predictable"
        ],
        [
          "idiom",
          "idiom"
        ],
        [
          "phrasal noun",
          "phrasal noun"
        ],
        [
          "phrasal preposition",
          "phrasal preposition"
        ],
        [
          "phrasal verb",
          "phrasal verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(linguistics) A lexeme-like unit made up of a sequence of two or more words that has properties that are not predictable from the properties of the individual words or their normal mode of combination, such as an idiom (\"pay the piper\"), a phrasal noun (\"steam iron\"), a phrasal preposition (\"in front of\"), or a phrasal verb (\"buy off\")."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "multi-word expression"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.