collocation
Habitual word grouping
Collocation refers to words that habitually appear together in natural speech and writing.
Native speakers say strong coffee rather than powerful coffee, make a decision rather than do a decision—not because alternatives are ungrammatical, but because certain combinations simply sound right.
Learning collocations is essential to fluency; mastering grammar and vocabulary isn't enough if your word pairings sound foreign.
Assembled written works
- frequencyRate of recurrence
- concordanceAlphabetical word index
- bigramTwo-element text sequence
- trigramThree-unit linguistic sequence
distribution · collocates · node · span · mutual information · keyword · t-score · z-score
Manner of verbal expression
- combinatoryRelating to arrangements
- lexicalOf or relating to words
- formulaicFollowing a set template
- fixed expressionInvariable linguistic unit
set phrase · habitual · conventional · restricted · prefabricated · chunk · bound · frozen
Arrangement of interconnected parts
- constituencyElectoral district's voters
- dependencyState of needing support
- syntacticRegarding sentence structure
- word orderSentence structure pattern
subcategorization · valency · modification · head · modifier · determiner · preposition
What something signifies
- connotationImplied sense, not dictionary
- sensePerception or judgment
- nuanceSlight shade of difference
- polysemyWord having related meanings
synonymy · construal · register · transparency · figurative · literal · opacity · motivation
Alphabetical word reference
- definitionStatement of meaning
- entryAccess or submission
- lexiconVocabulary of a language
- thesaurusSynonym and antonym compendium
terminology · glossary · lexicographer · cross-reference · wordlist · example sentence · learner's dictionary
corpus
Assembled written works
- frequencyRate of recurrence
- concordanceAlphabetical word index
- bigramTwo-element text sequence
trigram · distribution · collocates · node · span · mutual information · keyword · t-score · z-score · statistical significance
phraseology
Manner of verbal expression
- combinatoryRelating to arrangements
- lexicalOf or relating to words
- formulaicFollowing a set template
fixed expression · set phrase · habitual · conventional · restricted · prefabricated · chunk · bound · frozen · institutionalized
structure
Arrangement of interconnected parts
- constituencyElectoral district's voters
- dependencyState of needing support
- syntacticRegarding sentence structure
word order · subcategorization · valency · modification · head · modifier · determiner · preposition
meaning
What something signifies
- connotationImplied sense, not dictionary
- sensePerception or judgment
- nuanceSlight shade of difference
polysemy · synonymy · construal · register · transparency · figurative · literal · opacity · motivation
dictionary
Alphabetical word reference
- definitionStatement of meaning
- entryAccess or submission
- lexiconVocabulary of a language
thesaurus · terminology · glossary · lexicographer · cross-reference · wordlist · example sentence · learner's dictionary
teaching
Profession of instructing others
- learningGaining knowledge gradually
- acquisitionAct of obtaining something
- fluencySmooth linguistic command
- vocabularyword, words, new words, term, terms
- language termsgrammar, word, vocabulary, syntax, synonym
- expressionsexpression, I love you, phrase, idioms, thank you
- linguistics termssynonym, antonym, homonym, grammar, phonetics
- linguistic unitsword, morpheme, phoneme, grapheme, syllable
- word referencesdictionary, thesaurus, wordbook, word list, wordlist
collocationsolecism
Grammatical or social blunder
awkward phrasing · word salad · malapropism · grammatical error