semantic
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, or arising from the different meanings of words or other symbols.
semantic change; semantic confusion.
-
of or relating to semantics.
adjective
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of or relating to meaning or arising from distinctions between the meanings of different words or symbols
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of or relating to semantics
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logic concerned with the interpretation of a formal theory, as when truth tables are given as an account of the sentential connectives
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of semantic
First recorded in 1655–65; from Greek sēmantikós “having meaning,” equivalent to sēmant(ós) “marked” ( sēman-, base of sēmaínein “to show, mark” + -tos verbal adjective suffix; akin to sêma “sign”) + -ikos -ic
Explanation
If something is semantic, it has to do with the meaning of a word. If you're spending all this time reading the dictionary, you must be interested in semantic questions — or you just want better grades on your vocabulary quizzes. Semantic comes from the Greek word for "significant," and has to do with how, say, the word dog actually means that furry friend of yours, and all the others like him. If you're really into the philosophy of language and how words come to have particular meanings, then you like semantics. It can be an adjective, as in a semantic argument with your mom over the meaning of "grounded," or a noun, meaning "the study of signs and meaning."
Vocabulary lists containing semantic
"Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan
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Eats, Shoots & Leaves
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Sapiens
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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.
Despite frontier AI labs and tech competitors hiring forward-deployed engineers or discussing AI-powered “semantic layers,” Foundry is much more complex than a simple semantic layer over a data lake, the analysts say.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
In November, it refocused Chase’s division from “retail” to “lifestyle” — a semantic change that reflects a shifting focus.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 3, 2026
By combining task based experiments with fMRI data, the team found no measurable difference in brain activity between successful episodic and semantic memory retrieval.
From Science Daily • Feb. 3, 2026
They can be short-term or long-term, semantic or episodic.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 17, 2025
He could not fathom, for the life of him, if Luba Luft’s semantic fog had purpose.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
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.
