lemma
1 Americannoun
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lemmas,
plural
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lemmata
plural
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a subsidiary proposition introduced in proving some other proposition; a helping theorem.
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an argument, theme, or subject, especially when indicated in a heading.
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a word or phrase that is glossed; headword.
noun
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lemmas
plural
noun
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a subsidiary proposition, proved for use in the proof of another proposition
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linguistics a word considered as its citation form together with all the inflected forms. For example, the lemma go consists of go together with goes, going, went, and gone
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an argument or theme, esp when used as the subject or title of a composition
noun
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lemmas
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of lemma1
1560–70; < Latin: theme, title, epigram < Greek lêmma something received, premise, akin to lambánein to take, receive, take for granted
Origin of lemma2
1745–55; < Greek lémma shell, husk, akin to lépein to peel
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A false lemma is a false premise, or step in the reasoning process.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 15, 2022
Dr. Tanton chose Sperner’s lemma, which is related to the Brouwer fixed-point theorem that both Francis Su and Holly Krieger talked about on their episodes of the podcast.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 29, 2018
If you’d like to learn more about the real favorite theorem of every category theorist, check out Tai-Danae Bradley’s series about the Yoneda lemma on her blog Math3ma, starting with this post.
From Scientific American ● May 28, 2018
Once a lemma frequency dictionary was in place for each drug, this information was fed into Wordle to generate the detailed visualizations for each part of speech.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 26, 2012
When I place B1 in an entry but do not report B2, it can be assumed that B2 has the lemma as its reading.
From The Last Poems of Ovid by Mark Bear Akrigg
As a result, mathematicians tended to keep their discoveries to themselves, deploying their theorems, corollaries and lemmas only to win intellectual battles.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 24, 2023
The allusions to darkness blend in with lemmas about well-being and are celebrated in that indistinguishably supportive you-go-girl argot.
From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2020
Typically native speakers know 15,000 to 20,000 word families - or lemmas - in their first language.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2018
Unfortunately, mathematicians have done a good job of smothering the beauty beneath formal definitions, theorems, lemmas, and corollaries that dot every ‘i’ but never tell you what they’re spelling out.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 6, 2012
Axis of the spikelet beset with conspicuous long hairs about equaling the lemmas; tall marsh grass 1-4 m. high Reed, Phragmites communis. 30b.
From The Plants of Michigan Simple Keys for the Identification of the Native Seed Plants of the State by Henry Allan Gleason
The third operation collected all the accessible glosses in alphabetical order, in the first instance according to the first letters of the lemmata.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 2 "Gloss" to "Gordon, Charles George" by Various
If they enclose Latin words, they indicate the lemmata of Anglo-Saxon words in glosses or glossaries etc., or the Latin equivalent of such words in the Latin texts from which they are translated.
From A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary For the Use of Students by J. R. Clark (John R. Clark) Hall
A fourth arrangement collected the glosses according to the first two letters of the lemmata, as in the Corpus Glossary and in the still earlier Cod.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 2 "Gloss" to "Gordon, Charles George" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
