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coherence
/kəʊˈhɪrəns/
noun
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the situation in which all the parts of something fit together well
- The points you make are fine, but the whole essay lacks coherence.
- He managed to impose a new coherence on the machinery of the state.
- Your essay lacks internal coherence.
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when something such as a piece of writing is easy to understand because its parts are connected in a clear and reasonable way
- An overall theme will help to give your essay coherence.
- He had a coherence of outlook and thought.
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cohesion
/kəʊˈhiːʒn/
noun
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(formal) the act or state of keeping together
- the cohesion of the nuclear family
- social/political/economic cohesion
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(physics, chemistry) the force causing molecules of the same substance to stick together
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technical a close relationship, based on grammar or meaning, between two parts of a sentence or a larger piece of writing
Origin:
mid 17th cent.: from Latin cohaes- ‘cleaved together’, from the verb cohaerere, from co- ‘together’ + haerere ‘to stick’, on the pattern of adhesion.
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collocation
noun
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the way in which some words are often used together, or a particular combination of words used in this way
- ‘Commit a crime’ is a typical collocation in English.
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In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a series of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. In phraseology, a collocation is a type of compositional phraseme, meaning that it can be understood from the words that make it up. This contrasts with an idiom, where the meaning of the whole cannot be inferred from its parts, and may be completely unrelated.
An example of a phraseological collocation is the expression strong tea.[1] While the same meaning could be conveyed by the roughly equivalent powerful tea, this expression is considered excessive and awkward by English speakers. Conversely, a corresponding expression in technology, powerful computer, is preferred over strong computer.
There are about six main types of collocations: adjective + noun, noun + noun (such as collective nouns), verb + noun, adverb + adjective, verbs + prepositional phrase (phrasal verbs), and verb + adverb.
Collocation extraction is a computational technique that finds collocations in a document or corpus, using various computational linguistics elements resembling data mining.
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concordance
/kənˈkɔːrdəns/
noun
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[countable] an alphabetical list of the words used in a book, etc. showing where and how often they are used
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[countable] a list produced by a computer that shows all the examples of an individual word in a book, etc.
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[uncountable] (specialist) the state of being similar to something or consistent with it
- There is reasonable concordance between the two sets of results.
Origin:
late Middle English: from Old French, from medieval Latin concordantia, from concordant- ‘being of one mind’, from the verb concordare, from con- ‘together’ + cor, cord- ‘heart’.
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discourse
/ˈdɪskɔːrs/
noun
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[countable, uncountable] (formal) a long and serious treatment or discussion of a subject in speech or writing
- a discourse on issues of gender and sexuality
- He was hoping for some lively political discourse at the meeting.
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[uncountable] (linguistics) the use of language in speech and writing in order to produce meaning; language that is studied, usually in order to see how the different parts of a text are connected
- spoken/written discourse
- discourse analysis
Origin:
late Middle English (denoting the process of reasoning): from Old French discours, from Latin discursus ‘running to and fro’ (in medieval Latin: ‘argument’), from the verb discurrere, from dis- ‘away’ + currere ‘to run’; the verb influenced by French discourir.
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foreground
/ˈfɔːrɡraʊnd/
verb
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foreground something: to give particular importance to something
- The play foregrounds the relationship between father and daughter.
Origin:
late 17th cent.: from fore- + ground (noun), on the pattern of Dutch voorgrond.
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idiomatically
/ˌɪdiəˈmætɪkli/
adverb
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in a way that sounds natural to a native speaker of a language
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intricacy
/ˈɪntrɪkəsi/
noun
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(intricacies) [pl.] the ~ of sth the complicated parts or details of sth:
- the intricacies of economic policy
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[U] the fact of having complicated parts, details or patterns:
- the intricacy of the design
- a filigree bracelet of wonderful intricacy
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lexical
/ˈleksɪkəl/
adjective
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[usually before noun] (linguistics) connected with the words of a language
- lexical items / units (= words and phrases)
- lexically adverb
Origin:
mid 19th cent.: from Greek lexikos ‘of words’ (from lexis ‘word’) + -al.
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nominal
/ˈnɑːmɪnl/
adjective
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being something in name only, and not in reality
- the nominal leader of the party
- He remained in nominal control of the business for another ten years.
- The shares were sold for well below their nominal value.
- Civil and political rights might be purely nominal in character.
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(of a sum of money) very small and much less than the normal cost or charge
- We only pay a nominal rent.
- We make a nominal charge for use of the tennis courts.
- The amounts involved are nominal.
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(grammar) connected with a noun or nouns
Origin:
late 15th cent. (as a term in grammar): from Latin nominalis, from nomen, nomin- ‘name’.
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spontaneity
/ˌspɑːntəˈneɪəti/
noun
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[U] the quality of being spontaneous
- There is a lack of spontaneity in her performance.
- the contrast between an adult's formality and a child's spontaneity
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synonymy
/sɪˈnɑːnɪmi/
noun
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the fact of two or more words or expressions having the same meaning
Word Origin
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quality of being similar in meaning; study of synonyms; list of words with similar or related meanings;
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the semantic relation that holds between two words that can (in a given context) express the same meaning
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A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words begin, start, commence, and initiate are all synonyms of one another: they are synonymous .
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tenor
/ˈtenər/
noun
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[singular] the tenor of something (formal) the general character or meaning of something
- I was encouraged by the general tenor of his remarks.
- The whole tenor of the meeting was very positive.
- The general tenor of her argument was that Parliament should redress the balance between rich and poor.
Origin:
noun senses 1 to 2 late Middle English: via Old French from medieval Latin, based on tenere ‘to hold’; so named because the tenor part was allotted (and therefore “held”) the melody. noun sense 3 Middle English: from Old French tenour, from Latin tenor ‘course, substance, import of a law’, from tenere ‘to hold’.