Leksikas

Leksikas is a term used in several languages to denote the lexicon or vocabulary of a language. In linguistics and lexicography, a leksikas refers to the collection of lexical items—words, fixed phrases, and other units—that comprise a language’s vocabulary, together with the information associated with them, such as meanings, pronunciations, grammatical properties, etymologies, and usage examples. The leksikas of a language is typically distinguished from its grammar, phonology, and orthography, and it evolves as new terms enter the language and others fall out of use.

Etymology and usage contexts vary by language, but the concept aligns with the academic notion of a lexicon. The form leksikas appears in languages that draw on Greek or Latin roots and adopt the -ikas suffix to form abstract nouns, serving as a direct reference to the body of words a language contains.

A typical leksikas includes dictionary-style entries with a headword, part of speech, sense definitions, pronunciation, etymology, and inflectional information, along with usage examples. It may also provide cross-references to related forms, synonyms, antonyms, and semantic fields. There are monolingual leksikas documenting a single language, bilingual or multilingual lexica offering translations, and specialized leksikas that cover technical vocabularies in domains such as medicine, law, or information technology.

In modern contexts, leksikas are often digital databases—lexical databases or dictionaries—that support search, frequency information, semantic relations, and computational processing. They play a central role in natural language processing, language teaching, and lexicographic research, complementing grammars and corpora to capture how a language is actually used.