semantic

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek σημαντικός (sēmantikós). Compare French sémantique.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɪˈmæntɪk/
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /səˈmæntək/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æntɪk

Adjective

semantic (not comparable)

1. Of or relating to semantics or the meanings of words. [from late 19th c.]
2. (software design, of code) Reflecting intended structure and meaning.
3. (slang, of a detail or distinction) Petty or trivial; (of a person or statement) quibbling, niggling.

Noun

semantic (plural semantics)

1. (linguistics) In such writing systems as the Chinese writing system, the portion of a phono-semantic character that provides an indication of its meaning; contrasted with phonetic.
   • 2005, Friedrich Alexander Bischoff, Yinglin Wang, San tzu ching explicated, the classical initiation to classic Chinese couplet I to XI, page 21:

     Its semantic is polysyllabic, viz. it uses the word formations of spoken Chinese.

   • 2013, William S-Y. Wang, Love and War in Ancient China: Voices from the Shijing, page 25:

     In this particular case, the semantic is on the left of its host sinogram.

   • 2017, Vladimir Skultety, Understanding Chinese Characters:

     The 亻(人) ren2 'person' semantic has been replaced by 氵(水) shui3 'water' semantic in浸, but帚 zhou3 'broom' has phonetically or semantically nothing to do with 浸 and is just a residue of 侵 after亻(人) ren2 'person' has been removed.

References

• Semantic Web on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “semantic”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• “semantic”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "semantic" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.
• "Semantic code: What? Why? How?" in boagworld.
• “semantic”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• amnestic, ancestim, nematics

Etymology

Borrowed from French sémantique.

Adjective

semantic m or n (feminine singular semantică, masculine plural semantici, feminine and neuter plural semantice)

1. semantic