Standard Lemma guide

sememe

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈsɛmiːm/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The smallest unit of meaning; especially, the meaning expressed by a morpheme.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Ultimately from Ancient Greek σημαίνω (sēmaínō, “I signify, I mean”) + -eme. Compare morpheme.

Across languages

Translations

14 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 義位 /义位 (yìwèi) — smallest unit of linguistical meaning
  • Esperanto: sememo — smallest unit of linguistical meaning
  • Finnish: semeemi — smallest unit of linguistical meaning
  • French: sémème — smallest unit of linguistical meaning
  • German: Semem — smallest unit of linguistical meaning
  • Hungarian: szeméma — smallest unit of linguistical meaning
  • Italian: semema — smallest unit of linguistical meaning
  • Japanese: 意義素 (igiso) — smallest unit of linguistical meaning
  • Polish: semem — smallest unit of linguistical meaning
  • Portuguese: semema — smallest unit of linguistical meaning
  • Russian: семе́ма (seméma) — smallest unit of linguistical meaning
  • Russian: семанте́ма (semantéma) — smallest unit of linguistical meaning
  • Spanish: semema — smallest unit of linguistical meaning
  • Vietnamese: nghĩa vị — smallest unit of linguistical meaning