lemma

• (UK, General American) enPR: lĕm'ə, IPA^(key): /ˈlɛmə/
• (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /ˈlɪmə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛmə
• Hyphenation: lem‧ma

From Ancient Greek λῆμμα (lêmma, “premise, assumption”), from the same root as λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

lemma (plural lemmas or lemmata)

1. (mathematics) A proposition proved or accepted for immediate use in the proof of some other proposition.
   • 1988 August 30, Malcolm W. Browne, “Intellectual Duel: Brash Challenge, Swift Response”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     "We finally did it, but we found the proof very, very hard," [Dr. Conway] said. "I remember my wife and I spending one entire afternoon just working on some tiny little lemmas involved in the proof."

   1. (in phrases, by extension) A proposition originally used for such a purpose, but having later acquired a greater, independent, importance; a fundamental (often pithy) and widely-used result.
3. (linguistics, lexicography) The canonical form of an inflected word; i.e., the form usually found as the headword in a dictionary, such as the nominative singular of a noun, the bare infinitive of a verb, etc.

   Synonym: lexeme (synonymous sense)

   Holonym: lexeme (holonymous sense)

   • 2024, Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Truth About English Grammar, Polity Press, →ISBN, page 17:

     For the second sense, where "word" means "item that should have its own dictionary entry," lexicographers sometimes use the term "lemma," but that has other meanings too, so among linguists the term lexeme is now standard, and I'll use it. For the different forms or shapes that belong to a lexeme we can use the term word-form.

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:lemma.
5. (psycholinguistics) The theoretical abstract conceptual form of a word, representing a specific meaning, before the creation of a specific phonological form as the sounds of a lexeme, which may find representation in a specific written form as a dictionary or lexicographic word.

   Coordinate term: lexeme

• (linguistics, lexicography: canonical form of a word): citation form

• (antonym(s) of “linguistics, lexicography: canonical form of a word”): non-lemma

• basic form
• canonical form
• citation form
• dictionary form
• headword
• infinitive

From the Ancient Greek λέμμα (lémma), from λέπω (lépō, “I peel”).

lemma (plural lemmas or lemmata)

1. (botany) The outer shell of a fruit or similar body.
2. (botany) One of the specialized bracts around the floret in grasses.

Sister projects

• lemma (psycholinguistics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• lemma (morphology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• lemma (logic) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• lemma (mathematics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• headword on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• lemma (botany) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• melam, ammel

Ultimately from Ancient Greek λῆμμα (lêmma, “premise, assumption”), from λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈlɛma]
• Hyphenation: le‧m‧ma

lemma n

1. (mathematics) lemma
2. (linguistics) lemma (the canonical form of an inflected word)

• “lemma”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “lemma”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “lemma”, in Nový encyklopedický slovník češtiny online (in Czech), 2012–2020

From Latin lemma, from Ancient Greek λῆμμα (lêmma, “premise, assumption”), from λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛ.maː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: lem‧ma
• Rhymes: -ɛmaː

lemma n (plural lemma's or lemmata, diminutive lemmaatje n)

1. (mathematics) lemma (proved or accepted proposition used in a proof)
2. (linguistics) lemma (the canonical form of an inflected word, dictionary form)

From Ancient Greek λῆμμα (lêmma, “premise, assumption”), from λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈlemːɑ/, [ˈle̞mːɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -emːɑ
• Syllabification^(key): lem‧ma
• Hyphenation^(key): lem‧ma

lemma

1. (mathematics) lemma

   Synonym: apulause

2. (linguistics) lemma

   Synonym: perusmuoto

From English lemma and German Lemma, from Ancient Greek λῆμμα (lêmma, “premise, assumption”), from λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈlɛmːɒ]
• Hyphenation: lem‧ma
• Rhymes: -mɒ

lemma (plural lemmák)

1. (mathematics, linguistics, lexicography) lemma

From Latin lemma, from Ancient Greek λῆμμα (lêmma, “premise, assumption”), from λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛm.ma/
• Rhymes: -ɛmma
• Hyphenation: lèm‧ma

lemma m (plural lemmi)

1. (mathematics, linguistics, lexicography) lemma
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:lemma.
2. entry (in a dictionary)

• lemmatico

• Pianigiani, Ottorino (1907) “lemma”, in Vocabolario etimologico della lingua italiana (in Italian), Rome: Albrighi & Segati
• “lemma” in Il Sabatini Coletti: Dizionario della Lingua Italiana (© 2011)
• lemma¹ in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• melma

From Ancient Greek λῆμμα (lêmma, “premise, assumption”), from λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɫeːm.ma]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈlɛm.ma]

lēmma n (genitive lēmmatis); third declension

1. (literally) A subject for consideration or explanation, a theme, matter, subject, contents.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Pliny the Younger to this entry?)

2. (transferred senses):
   1. the title of an epigram (because it indicates the subject)
   2. the epigram itself
   3. story, tale
   4. the assumption or lemma of a syllogism

      (Can we find and add a quotation of Aulus Gellius to this entry?)

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

• nūtrīcis lēmmata

• Catalan: lema
• Dutch: lemma
• English: lemma
• French: lemme
• German: Lemma
• Italian: lemma
• Spanish: lema

• “lemma”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• lemma in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 898/2.
• “lemma” on page 1,015/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)

Probably a scribal error: ni → m.

lemma f (genitive lemmae); first declension

1. medieval spelling of lemnia [8th C.]

First-declension noun.

• “lemma”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "lemma", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek λῆμμα (lêmma, “premise, assumption”), from λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛm.ma/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛmma
• Syllabification: lem‧ma

lemma f

1. (linguistics, lexicography) lemma

• lemma in Polish dictionaries at PWN

From Ancient Greek λῆμμα (lêmma, “premise, assumption”), from λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

lemma n

1. lemma^[1] (the canonical form of an inflected word, a headword in a dictionary)
2. (mathematics) lemma (a proposition)

• uppslagsord

• lemma in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)