glosseme
"glosseme" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“glosseme” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The smallest irreducible unit of both the content and expression planes of language; the basic unit of language in the theory of glossematics.
Corpus desk
Index EN-glosseme · glosseme · English
glosseme · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "G" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | glosseme |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “glosseme” in English
Rare enough to double-check
glosseme is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The smallest irreducible unit of both the content and expression planes of language; the basic unit of language in the theory of glossematics.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for glosseme, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From gloss- + -eme, coined by Louis Hjelmslev and Hans Jørgen Uldall in the 1930s. The correct English form is glosseme, spelled G-L-O-S-S-E-M-E.
Definition
- 1The smallest irreducible unit of both the content and expression planes of language; the basic unit of language in the theory of glossematics.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how glosseme appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
We can now for a moment leave Hjelmslev's own conception of such a system—based upon glossematic formal definitions—and ask: to which degree can this system of glossemes be defended from a general phonological or phonetic point of view?
Etymology
From gloss- + -eme, coined by Louis Hjelmslev and Hans Jørgen Uldall in the 1930s.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.