teksten

Teksten is the Dutch plural noun meaning texts. In Dutch, a tekst refers to the content of written or printed communication, including prose, poetry, dialogues, transcripts, and other language used to convey information or meaning. The term is used across journalism, education, publishing, advertising, and online media to describe the substantive content of a document, a book, article, or web page. The plural form is teksten.

Tekst derives from Latin textus via French texte; the modern Dutch plural teksten is formed by adding -en to the singular tekst. The term originally referred to the woven fabric or the body of written matter, and by extension to the “texture” of a passage.

Texts vary by genre and medium. They may be literary (prose, poetry), informative (articles, reports), or functional (instruction manuals, legal texts). In music, the term tekst is used for lyrics; the plural teksten is rarely used for song lyrics, as liedtekst or song lyrics is common. In Dutch discourse, teksten can be discussed as units in text linguistics, focusing on cohesion, coherence, and genre.

With digital media, teksten can exist as plain text files or as encoded markup in formats such as HTML and XML, often stored in corpora for research. Copyright law governs the reproduction and quotation of teksten, with standards for fair use and citation. The study of teksten spans literature, linguistics, media studies, and computational humanities.