deictic
/ˈdeɪktɪk/adjective, noun
deictic is an adjective meaning “Of or pertaining to deixis; to a word whose meaning is dependent on context” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled D-E-I-C-T-I-C, and it appears about once in every 25 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does deictic mean?
adjective
- 1
Of or pertaining to deixis; to a word whose meaning is dependent on context.
- 2
Directly pointing out; specifying.
noun
- 1
Such a word (such as I or here).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce deictic?
- /ˈdeɪktɪk/
- /ˈdaɪktɪk/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-deictic.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-deictic2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of deictic
- more deictic comparative
- most deictic superlative
- deictics plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is deictic?
Deictic appears about once in every 25 million words in written English, the 150,355th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Deictic in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense pertaining to deixis:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does deictic come from?
Borrowed from Ancient Greek δεικτικός (deiktikós, “capable of proof”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).