lexical meaning: meaning, definition, pronunciation and examples

Not exactly. Lexical meaning is the core, conventional meaning stored in the lexicon. Literal meaning is a subtype that is non-figurative. All literal meanings are lexical, but lexical meanings can include established figurative senses (e.g., the lexical meaning of 'bright' includes 'intelligent').

They are very similar. 'Lexical meaning' often refers to the abstract, conceptual content, while 'word sense' is a discrete, listed meaning in a dictionary for a polysemous word. In practice, they are often used interchangeably.

Yes, but it is often minimal or abstract. Prepositions like 'in' have lexical meaning (containment/location) as well as grammatical function. Pure function words like 'the' are said to have primarily grammatical, not lexical, meaning.

It is relatively stable within a speech community at a given time but evolves diachronically. It is the conventionalised meaning, as opposed to contextual or speaker-intended meaning, which can vary more.

The specific, dictionary-style meaning of a word or morpheme, independent of its grammatical function or context.

Lexical meaning is usually academic, technical in register.

Lexical meaning: in British English it is pronounced /ˈlɛksɪkəl ˈmiːnɪŋ/, and in American English it is pronounced /ˈlɛksɪkəl ˈminɪŋ/. Tap the audio buttons above to hear it.