Did you know?
The ancient Greeks were some of the earliest makers of dictionaries; they used them mainly to catalog obsolete terms from their rich literary past. To create a word for writers of dictionaries, the Greeks sensibly attached the suffix -graphos, meaning "writer," to lexikon, meaning "dictionary," to form lexikographos, the direct ancestor of the English word lexicographer. Lexikon, which itself descends from Greek lexis (meaning "word" or "speech"), also gave us lexicon, which can mean either "dictionary" or "the vocabulary of a language, speaker, or subject."
Examples of lexicographer in a Sentence
Melina Khan, USA Today, 1 Dec. 2025
From there, though, the American bird became a victim of mistaken identity, according to lexicographer Erin McKean.
—Natalie Escobar, NPR, 26 Nov. 2025
As 2025 draws to a close, the lexicographers and linguists at the world’s most used and well-known dictionaries have begun their sometimes polarizing annual ritual of trying to capture the year’s zeitgeist through a single word.
—Chad De Guzman, Time, 18 Nov. 2025
In 1758, lexicographer, textbook pioneer, and English-language spelling reformer Noah Webster is born.
—Literary Hub, 16 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for lexicographer
Cite this Entry
“Lexicographer.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lexicographer. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
lexicographer
noun
Share