Lessici

Lessici is the plural form of lessico in Italian. In linguistics and lexicography, the term refers to collections of vocabulary—lexicons or dictionaries—covering the words of a language, a subject area, or a specific domain. A lessico can be monolingual, bilingual, or specialized, and is used as a reference tool for understanding word meanings, usage, and grammatical behavior.

Etymology and scope: The Italian word lessico denotes the inventory of words of a language or of a particular field. The term lessici thus designates multiple such inventories. The concept mirrors what in English is called lexicons or dictionaries, and it is widely used in discussions of vocabulary, terminology, and language resources.

Applications and use: Lessici compile lemmas, senses, pronunciations, etymologies, example sentences, and sometimes frequency data and collocations. In dictionaries and other language resources, they serve as foundational references for learners, translators, researchers, and language professionals. In academic and applied contexts, comparisons among different lessici can illuminate semantic change, lexical fields, domain-specific terminology, and differences between varieties of a language.

Context and terminology: In Italian scholarly writing, lessici are commonly referenced when describing vocabulary resources, corpus studies, or language databases. While the concept exists broadly in linguistics, English practice tends to use lexicon or lexicons (and occasionally lexica) rather than the Italian plural lessici.