corpus

noun

cor·​pus ˈkȯr-pəs How to pronounce corpus (audio)
plural corpora ˈkȯr-p(ə-)rə How to pronounce corpus (audio)
1
: the body of a human or animal especially when dead
2
a
: the main part or body of a bodily structure or organ
the corpus of the uterus
b
: the main body or corporeal substance of a thing
specifically : the principal of a fund or estate as distinct from income or interest
3
a
: all the writings or works of a particular kind or on a particular subject
especially : the complete works of an author
b
: a collection or body of knowledge or evidence
especially : a collection of recorded utterances used as a basis for the descriptive analysis of a language

Examples of corpus in a Sentence

a computerized corpus of English Jane Austen's corpus is modest in number but magnificent in achievement.
Recent Examples on the Web The size and breadth of these corpora feed into the ability of foundation models to serve multiple downstream tasks. Jenna Wiens, STAT, 25 Aug. 2023 Solar-Lezama says the issue may be that all large language models are trained on similar corpora of text data, much of it downloaded from the same websites. WIRED, 1 Aug. 2023 These works, which have never been reprinted or translated, have since been excised from the Kundera corpus, and none of them appear in his official bibliography. Jared Marcel Pollen, The New Republic, 12 July 2023 In its most elemental sense, what the neural network does is use a sequence of words to choose the next word to follow in the sequence, based on the likelihood of finding that particular word next in its training corpus. Jaideep Vaidya, IEEE Spectrum, 11 June 2023 It was meant for things like works of renewal, replacement, and augmentation of assets and was supposed to have a corpus of more than $12 billion to be built over a period of five years, with an annual outlay of $2.42 billion. Niharika Sharma, Quartz, 6 June 2023 The message is loud and clear, but this novel is a minor-key addition to Boyle’s impressive literary corpus. Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 11 May 2023 Every generation finds its values eerily anticipated in the corpus. Daniel Hannan, National Review, 13 Apr. 2023 Demolition squads of scholars have stencil-brushed the casing and every wire of the corpus; warning tape encircles the mother lode of fifty books, which are still capable of sending readers sky-high. Thomas Meaney, Harper’s Magazine , 16 Feb. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'corpus.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, borrowed from Latin, "body, entity, group of people, collection, compendium" — more at midriff

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of corpus was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near corpus

Cite this Entry

“Corpus.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/corpus. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Medical Definition

corpus

noun
cor·​pus ˈkȯr-pəs How to pronounce corpus (audio)
plural corpora -p(ə-)rə How to pronounce corpus (audio)
1
: the human or animal body especially when dead
2
: the main part or body of a bodily structure or organ
the corpus of the jaw
see corpus uteri

Legal Definition

corpus

noun
plural corpora -pə-rə How to pronounce corpus (audio)
: the main body of a thing
specifically : the principal of a fund, trust, or estate as distinct from income or interest : res

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