lexicon
n. countablen. the set of all the words used in a particular language or by a specific group of people. It is like a mental dictionary that contains every word you know.
n. the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge. In linguistics, it refers to the complete set of meaningful units in a language.
Computer programming has its own unique lexicon.
The doctor used medical terms that were not part of my everyday lexicon.
As digital communication evolves, new emojis and abbreviations are rapidly integrated into the global lexicon, often bypassing traditional linguistic gatekeepers.
Through Middle French or directly from New Latin lexicon, from Byzantine Greek λεξικόν (lexikón, “a lexicon, a dictionary”), ellipsis from Ancient Greek λεξικὸν βιβλίον (lexikòn biblíon, literally “a book of words”), from λεξικός (lexikós, “of words”), from λέξις (léxis, “a saying, speech, word”), from λέγω (légō, “to speak”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather, collect”). Attested at least since 1583 (in William Fulke's A Defense of the Sincere and True Translations of the Holy Scriptures into the English tongue) in the sense 'a dictionary of a classical language'.
Often used in academic contexts to discuss the specialized vocabulary of a field.