semantics

Noun

1. A branch of linguistics studying the meaning of words.
   • Holonym: linguistics
   • Meronyms: semasiology, onomasiology
   • lexical semantics

   Related: pragmatics phonology morphology grammar

2. The study of the relationship between words and their meanings.
   • In fact, nowadays a lot is known about the semantics of natural languages, and it is surprisingly easy to build semantic representations which partially capture the meaning of sentences or even entire discourses. -...
3. The meaning or set of meanings of a linguistic element, such as a word, morpheme or utterance.
   • In very ancient or poorly documented languages, the precise semantics of words tend to be uncertain.

   1. The meanings of individual words, as opposed to the overall meaning of a passage.

      • The semantics of the terms used are debatable.
4. The meaning of computer language constructs, in contrast to their form or syntax.
   • file sharing and locking semantics
5. Pettiness or triviality.
   • Who cares? This is all just semantics!