types:
anagram
a word or phrase spelled by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase
anaphor
a word (such as a pronoun) used to avoid repetition; the referent of an anaphor is determined by its antecedent
antonym,
opposite,
opposite word
a word that expresses a meaning opposed to the meaning of another word, in which case the two words are antonyms of each other
back-formation
a word invented (usually unwittingly by subtracting an affix) on the assumption that a familiar word derives from it
charade
a word acted out in an episode of a game
cognate,
cognate word
a word is cognate with another if both derive from the same word in an ancestral language
contraction
a word formed from two or more words by omitting or combining some sounds
deictic,
deictic word
a word specifying identity or spatial or temporal location from the perspective of a speaker or hearer in the context in which the communication occurs
derivative
(linguistics) a word that is derived from another word
diminutive
a word that is formed with a suffix (such as -let or -kin) to indicate smallness
dirty word
a word that is considered to be unmentionable
catchword,
guide word,
guideword
a word printed at the top of the page of a dictionary or other reference book to indicate the first or last item on that page
head,
head word
(grammar) the word in a grammatical constituent that plays the same grammatical role as the whole constituent
headword
a word placed at the beginning of a line or paragraph (as in a dictionary entry)
heteronym
a word spelled like another word with a different meaning and pronunciation
homonym
two words are homonyms if they are pronounced or spelled the same way but have different meanings
key word
a significant word used in indexing or cataloging
hybrid,
loan-blend,
loanblend
a word that is composed of parts from different languages (e.g., `monolingual' has a Greek prefix and a Latin root)
loan,
loanword
a word borrowed from another language; e.g. `blitz' is a German word borrowed into modern English
metonym
a word that denotes one thing but refers to a related thing
oxytone
word having stress or an acute accent on the last syllable
palindrome
a word or phrase that reads the same backward as forward
primitive
a word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms
paroxytone
word having stress or acute accent on the next to last syllable
partitive
word (such a `some' or `less') that is used to indicate a part as distinct from a whole
proparoxytone
word having stress or acute accent on the antepenult
quantifier
(grammar) a word that expresses a quantity (as `fifteen' or `many')
reduplication
a word formed by or containing a repeated syllable or speech sound (usually at the beginning of the word)
retronym
a word introduced because an existing term has become inadequate
substantive
any word or group of words functioning as a noun
equivalent word,
synonym
two words that can be interchanged in a context are said to be synonymous relative to that context
term
a word or expression used for some particular thing
classifier
a word or morpheme used in some languages in certain contexts (such as counting) to indicate the semantic class to which the counted item belongs
syncategorem,
syncategoreme
a syncategorematic expression; a word that cannot be used alone as a term in a logical proposition
verbal
a noun or adjective that is formed from a verb
contronym
a word that has two contradictory or opposing meanings
Latinism
a word or phrase borrowed from Latin
antigram
an anagram that means the opposite of the original word or phrase
ghost word
a word form that has entered the language through the perpetuation of an error
etymon,
root
a simple form inferred as the common basis from which related words in several languages can be derived by linguistic processes
universal quantifier
a logical quantifier of a proposition that asserts that the proposition is true for all members of a class of things
direct antonym
antonyms that are commonly associated (e.g., `wet' and `dry')
indirect antonym
antonyms whose opposition is mediated (e.g., the antonymy of `wet' and `parched' is mediated by the similarity of `parched' to `dry')
noun
a content word that can be used to refer to a person, place, thing, quality, or action
verb
a content word that denotes an action, occurrence, or state of existence
preposition
a function word that combines with a noun or pronoun or noun phrase to form a prepositional phrase that can have an adverbial or adjectival relation to some other word
pronoun
a function word that is used in place of a noun or noun phrase
particle
a function word that can be used in English to form phrasal verbs
bigram
a word that is written with two letters in an alphabetic writing system
trigram
a word that is written with three letters in an alphabetic writing system
tetragram
a word that is written with four letters in an alphabetic writing system
referent
something that refers; a term that refers to another term
markup language
a set of symbols and rules for their use when doing a markup of a document
Gallicism
a word or phrase borrowed from French
acronym
a word formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name
homograph
two words are homographs if they are spelled the same way but differ in meaning (e.g. fair)
homophone
two words are homophones if they are pronounced the same way but differ in meaning or spelling or both (e.g. bare and bear)