singleword

Singleword is an informal label used in linguistics and information retrieval to describe a lexical item that exists as a single orthographic token, rather than as a multiword expression or phrase. The term functions as a pragmatic descriptor rather than a formal category in most linguistic traditions.

In lexicography it refers to a word entry that is indexed as one unit, regardless of its internal morphology. This sense treats a single token as the basic unit of entry, which can encapsulate simple or complex internal structure, such as affixation or compounding.

Many languages form words by affixation or compounding, yet these remain single tokens in written text, such as unhappy (un- + happy) or sunflower (sun + flower). In such cases the word is still a single orthographic unit, even though it contains multiple morphemes or roots.

In information retrieval and natural language processing, distinguishing singlewords from multiword expressions affects indexing, search accuracy, and semantic analysis. Tools for stemming and lemmatization often aim to reduce related forms to a common lemma, treating single tokens as the base units for analysis.

The term is not standardized, and its precise meaning varies by discipline. It commonly contrasts with phrases like kick the bucket or in the mood, which comprise multiple tokens. In languages with extensive compounding or agglutination, the boundary between singleword and multiword expressions can be blurred, making contextual interpretation important.

See also: compound word, multiword expression, morpheme, lemmatization, stemming.