vocablos

Vocablos is the plural form of vocablo, a linguistic term used in Spanish-language lexicography to denote a unit of lexical meaning. A vocablo typically corresponds to a single word or to a lexical item that can be found in a dictionary as a headword. The term is somewhat more formal or technical than the everyday synonym palabra, and is common in linguistic descriptions, dictionaries, and scholarly writing.

Etymology and related terms: Vocablo derives from Latin vocabulum, related to English vocable and vocabulary. In Spanish, vocablos can refer to any unit in the lexicon that carries meaning, including simple words and, in some uses, fixed phrases or lexemes.

Usage in linguistics: In dictionaries, the vocablo is the entry under which its form, pronunciation, etymology, semantics, and usage notes are organized. Linguists may distinguish between vocablo as the form and lexeme as the abstract meaning; orthography and inflection are often described separately.

Examples: El vocablo casa designa el concepto de vivienda; el vocablo correr es un verbo. Some vocablos are multiword expressions, such as a phrase that functions as a single lexical unit. The plural vocablos encompass all such units in a given language's lexicon.

See also: Vocable, Lexeme, Lemma, Diccionario (Spanish).