Lemma

//ˈlɪmə// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A female given name. rare
Noun
  1. 1
    A proposition proved or accepted for immediate use in the proof of some other proposition.

    ""We finally did it, but we found the proof very, very hard," [Dr. Conway] said. "I remember my wife and I spending one entire afternoon just working on some tiny little lemmas involved in the proof.""

  2. 2
    The outer shell of a fruit or similar body.
  3. 3
    the heading that indicates the subject of an annotation or a literary composition or a dictionary entry wordnet
  4. 4
    A proposition proved or accepted for immediate use in the proof of some other proposition.; A proposition originally used for such a purpose, but having later acquired a greater, independent, importance; a fundamental (often pithy) and widely-used result. broadly
  5. 5
    One of the specialized bracts around the floret in grasses.
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    a subsidiary proposition that is assumed to be true in order to prove another proposition wordnet
  2. 7
    The canonical form of an inflected word; i.e., the form usually found as the headword in a dictionary, such as the nominative singular of a noun, the bare infinitive of a verb, etc.

    "Holonym: lexeme (holonymous sense)"

  3. 8
    the lower and stouter of the two glumes immediately enclosing the floret in most Gramineae wordnet
  4. 9
    The theoretical abstract conceptual form of a word, representing a specific meaning, before the creation of a specific phonological form as the sounds of a lexeme, which may find representation in a specific written form as a dictionary or lexicographic word.

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek λῆμμα (lêmma, “premise, assumption”), from the same root as λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

Etymology 2

From the Ancient Greek λέμμα (lémma), from λέπω (lépō, “I peel”).

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