semantic

adjective

se·​man·​tic si-ˈman-tik How to pronounce semantic (audio)
variants or less commonly semantical
1
: of or relating to meaning in language
2
: of or relating to semantics
semantically adverb

Example Sentences

the process of semantic development
Recent Examples on the Web The semantic subtype primarily leads to a loss of word comprehension. Diana Kwon, Scientific American, 9 Mar. 2023 Language is always changing, and accounting for semantic evolution is not always possible. Kim Severson, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2023 ViT-22B has been trained on various visual tasks, such as image classification, object detection, semantic segmentation, and image captioning. Benj Edwards, Ars Technica, 7 Mar. 2023 Wolf explains how this experience, at first appearing straightforward, is actually the product of several different parts of your brain (semantic and grammatical systems) working together to attach symbols to words. Melanie Hamon, Longreads, 23 Feb. 2023 From the semantic map, occupancy and cost maps are built with the sidewalk identified as walk-able area and everything else considered as an obstacle. IEEE Spectrum, 12 July 2019 Drones are commonly in scenes with few or no semantic priors on the environment and must deftly navigate thin objects, extreme lighting, camera artifacts, motion blur, textureless surfaces, vibrations, dirt, smudges, and fog. IEEE Spectrum, 20 Jan. 2023 The first is an interesting and sometimes important semantic question. Andrew Pulrang, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2022 Thanks to large-scale vectorization, LLMs enable true semantic search for the first time: the ability to index and access information based on underlying concepts and context rather than simple keywords. Rob Toews, Forbes, 20 Dec. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'semantic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

Etymology

Greek sēmantikos significant, from sēmainein to signify, mean, from sēma sign, token

First Known Use

1890, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of semantic was in 1890

Dictionary Entries Near semantic

Cite this Entry

“Semantic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/semantic. Accessed 27 Mar. 2023.

Kids Definition

semantic

adjective
se·​man·​tic si-ˈmant-ik How to pronounce semantic (audio)
1
: of or relating to meaning in language
2
: of or relating to semantics
semantically adverb

More from Merriam-Webster on semantic

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