| c. |
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abbreviation
- (context, preposition) circa
- The document was written in the Middle Ages, 1250.
- (context, noun) city
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| cacology |
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noun
- Poor diction or choice of words.
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| caconym |
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noun - an incorrect name for something, especially in taxonomic classification
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| calque |
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noun
- A word-for-word translation of a saying or a morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word from one language to another.
::The word watershed is a from German Wasserscheide.
verb (calques, calquing, calqued)
- (transitive) To adopt (a word or phrase) from one language to another by semantic translation of its parts.
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| Canadianism |
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noun - A custom, trait, or element of language characteristic of Canadian speech.
category:Regional English
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| canonical |
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adjective
- (theology) Present in a canon of Scripture.
- The w:Gospel of Luke, Gospel of Luke is a New Testament book.
- In conformity with canon law.
- According to recognised or orthodox rules.
- The men played golf in the most way, with no local rules.
- Stated or used in the most basic and straightforwardly applicable manner.
- This definition would be more useful if it were .
- (music) In the form of a canon.
- Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical chapter
- (context, math, compsci) In canonical form.
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| cant |
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noun
- The jargon of a particular class or subgroup.
- He had the look of a prince, but the of a fishmonger.
- A private or secret language used by a religious sect, gang, or other group.
- empty, Empty, hypocritical talk.
- People claim to care about the poor of Africa, but it is largely .
- A musical singing sound.
- (heraldry) A blazon of a coat of arms that makes a pun upon the name of the bearer.
verb
- (intransitive) To speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup.
- (intransitive) To speak in set phrases.
- (intransitive) To preach in a singsong fashion, especially in a false or empty manner.
- (context, intransitive, heraldry) Of a blazon, to make a pun that references the bearer of a coat of arms.
adjective kant
- (English dialect) lively, lusty.
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| cedilla |
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noun , -
, ¸ í� í§- (orthography) In the spelling of Catalan, French and Portuguese and some other languages, a mark placed under the letter c immediately preceding a, o, or u to indicate that it is pronounced /s/ rather than /k/, as in French menaí§ant and Portuguese almoí§o, and also used in various other languages to change the sounds of other letters.
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| centum |
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adjective
- (linguistics) referring to a Proto-Indo-European language group that did not produce sibilants from a series of velar stops
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| character |
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noun
- A being involved in the action of a story.
- A symbol used to represent a sound or a word.
- A distinguishing feature; characteristic; A complex of mental and ethical traits marking a person or a group.
- A moral strength.
- "You may not like to eat liver," said Calvin's father, "but it builds ."
- A person with many notable or eccentric features.
- (mathematics) A complex number representing an element of a finite Abelian group.
- (computing) One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character. Synonymous with byte in some environments.
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| chereme |
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noun - (linguistics) the basic unit of a sign language; equivalent to a morpheme
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| Chinese |
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noun (Chinese, -)
- (uncountable) The class of Sino-Tibetan dialects including Mandarin, Wu, Cantonese, Min Nan and others. Abbreviation: Chin or Chin.
- (rfv-sense)(uncountable) The logographic writing system shared by this language family.
- Hong Kong uses traditional .
- (uncountable) Mandarin, the main language spoken in China.
- (used as a plural and always preceded by the) The people of China.
- The Chinese have an incredible history.
- (countable) A person born in China.
- The place was empty till two walked in.
- (context, UK, countable, informal) A Chinese meal.
- We're going out tonight for a .
- (context, US, uncountable, informal) Chinese food.
- Do you care for tonight?
adjective
- Of China, its languages or people
- Unexpected, as used in the phrases Chinese whispers, Chinese burn, Chinese auction.
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| cline |
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noun
- (biology) A gradation in a character or phenotype within a species or other group.
- Any graduated continuum.
- 2005, Ronnie Cann, Ruth Kempson and Lutz Marten, The Dynamics of Language, an Introduction, p. 412
- : This account effectively reconstructs the well-known grammaticalisation from anaphora to agreement, …
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| cloze |
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noun - A form of written examination technique in which candidates are required to provide words that have been omitted from sentences, thereby demonstrating their knowledge and comprehension of the text.
adjective - Based on or being a cloze.
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| code-switching |
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noun
- (linguistics) the phenomenon of alternating between two or more languages during spoken conversation
- Like many bilingual families, it was normal to frequently observe at our dinner table.
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| cognate |
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noun
- A word derived from the same roots as a given word.
- English "ward" is a of "guard", and of French "garder".
- ''English "ward", English "guard", and French "garder" are all cognates.
adjective
- Derived from the same roots.
- In English, "ward" is cognate to "guard", and both are to French garder.
- English "ward", English "guard", Icelandic "ví¶rí°ur" and French "garder" are all .''
- Similar in nature
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| coherence |
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noun
- the quality of cohering; of being coherent
- a logical arrangements of parts
- (physics) (of waves) having the same wavelength and phase
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| cohesion |
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noun
- the state of cohering, or of sticking together
- (physics),(chemistry) the various intermolecular forces that hold solids and liquids together
- (biology) the growing together of normally distinct parts of a plant
- (computing) the degree to which different modules in a computing system are functionally dependent on others
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| coinage |
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noun
- Related to coins.
- A coined word.
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| collocation |
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noun
- a grouping or juxtaposition of words that commonly occur together
- (military) the placing of two or more units at the same location
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| commutation |
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noun - A passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation.
- The act of giving one thing for another; barter; exchange.
- The change of a penalty or punishment by the pardoning power of the State; as, the commutation of a sentence of death to banishment or imprisonment.
- A substitution, as of a less thing for a greater, esp. a substitution of one form of payment for another, or one payment for many, or a specific sum of money for conditional payments or allowances; as, commutation of tithes; commutation of fares; commutation of copyright; commutation of rations.
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| connotation |
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noun
- A meaning that is suggested or implied, as opposed to a denotation, or literal definition. A characteristic of words or phrases, or of the contexts that words and phrases are used in.
- The connotations of the phrase "you are a dog" are that you are physically unattractive or morally reprehensible, not that you are a canine.
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| constraint |
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noun
- something that constrains
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| contextualize |
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verb to contextualize
- To place something in a particular context
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| converse |
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noun
- The opposite or reverse.
- (logic) Of a proposition or theorem of the form "If A is true, then B is true" or (equivalently) "All Xs are Ys", the proposition or law "If B is true, then A is true" or "All Ys are Xs", respectively.
- All trees are plants, but the converse, that all plants are trees, is not true.
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| corpus |
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noun (plural: corpora or corpuses)
- the body
- (linguistics) a collection of writings, often on a specific topic, of a specific genre, from a specific demographic, a single author etc.
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| corruption |
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noun (uncountable and countable; plural corruptions)
- The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity; depravity; wickedness; impurity; bribery.
- It was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, . . . to exite popular indignation against them. — w:Arthur Hallam, Hallam
- They abstained from some of the worst methods of usual to their party in its earlier days. — w:Bancroft, Bancroft
- Usage note: Corruption, when applied to officers, trustees, etc., signifies the inducing a violation of duty by means of pecuniary considerations. — w:Abbott, Abbott
- The act of corrupting or making putrid, or state of being corrupt or putrid; decomposition or disorganization, in the process of putrefaction; putrefaction; deterioration.
- The product of corruption; putrid matter.
- The decomposition of biological matter.
- (computing) The destruction of data by manipulation of parts of it, usually a result of imperfections in storage or transmission media which randomly alter parts of the data.
- The act of changing, or of being changed, for the worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct; as, a corruption of style; corruption in language.
- (linguistics) A word that has adopted from another language but whose spelling has been changed through misunderstanding, transcription error, mishearing, etc.
- Something that is evil but is supposed to be good.
- The inducing and accelerating of putrefaction is a subject of very universal inquiry; for is a reciprocal to generation. — w:Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon.
- Parts of a machine can be corrupted, meaning broken.
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| counterword |
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noun
- A word whose new meaning is overused, and not intended for what the original meaning is.
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| Creole |
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proper noun
- A French-African ethnic group in Louisiana.
- A member of this ethnic group.
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| creolize |
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verb (creoliz, ing)
- (linguistics) To cause a pidgin language rapidly expanding in vocabulary and grammar, grammatical rules to become ultimately a creole.
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| cuneiform |
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noun
- An ancient writing system originating in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC.
- (anatomy) A wedge-shaped bone, especially a cuneiform bone.
adjective
- Having the form of a wedge; wedge-shaped.
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| cuneiformist |
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noun - A specialist or expert in cuneiform.
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| Cyrillic |
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proper noun
- A script used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe.
adjective
- Of or pertaining to Cyrillic script or the Cyrillic alphabet.
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