Definitions
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek ἅπαξ λεγόμενον ("(something) said only once"). (Wiktionary)
- Greek : hapax, once + legomenon, neuter sing. passive participle of legein, to count, say. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hapax legomenon’.
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Word Words
This used to be my nym list, but there are so many words about words, I think it's time to expand and open.
acronym, antonym, aptronym, autoantonym, autonym, bacronym, capitonym, contranym, contronym, eponym, exonym, heteronym and 120 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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angelcatrom's list
Words I love!
defenestrate, contrafibularity, hootnanny, pingo, escadrille, perspicacious, nonce, aequeosalinocalca..., supercalifragilis..., hapax legomenon, all-a-mort, quantical and 2 more...
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Pretentious Christianese
"Religious" words that make you sound like a pretentious jerk no matter how appropriate their application. Essentially any word you can use as an excuse not to actually have a real conversation. =)
christophany, hermeneutics, exegesis, exegete, theophany, epistle, bibliology, sola scriptura, exposition, apocalyptic, apocrypha, transubstantiation and 25 more...
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Sima Yi's list
A list of words I find unusual and interesting.
dysphemism, hapax legomenon, rill, repristinate, exuviate, phillipic, fillip, cyanobacteria, prokaryotic, onomasticon, bibliotics, diplomatics and 45 more...
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list01
I HEART MYSELF!!!!!!!!!!
clitoridectomy, pneumonoultramicr..., deipnosophist, zenana, quadragintesimal, lampadedromy, fundus, karyokinesis, machicolation, plasmapherisis, entomophagous, oxyopia and 36 more...
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Hapax Legomenon
For those special words that we only seem to use once in a lifetime..
hapax legomenon, schadenfreude, malapropism, ipso facto, carte blanche, tautology, pleonasm, reductio ad absurdum, tabula rasa, post hoc ergo pro..., post hoc, cum hoc ergo prop...
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WF - all types of word formation
My ambition is to build a list with the names for
1. ALL types of word formation
2. the words put together by 1.
using a strict definition: e.g. "antonym", "aptronym" "palindrom...camel case, incapping, suffixing, capitalization, compound, agglutination, back-formation, blending, acronym, clipping, calque, semantic loan and 56 more...
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The Fantastic Chiliastic
chiliastic, hapax legomenon, anosognosia, jactitation, infundibular, twee, callipygian, tintinnabulation, prestidigitation, anhedonia, coprolalia, parapraxis and 15 more...
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marginalia
exuberance, potsherds, earthbound, marcher, märchen, pastiche, transliterated, crocodile, oxbridge, jejune, publican, antithesis and 143 more...
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Ms. Paradise Word List
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Carlos' Words
monstropolous, absquatulate
pinguid, triffid, calque, refulgent, monstropolous, Seanchaí, clinquant, Chryselephantine ..., peavey, milium, swage, Burtillon, Burtil... and 215 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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good ones
grumble, fumble, bumble, stumble, crumble, mumble, jumble, humble, bramble, scramble, amble, ramble and 191 more...
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List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
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That's right, another list
muck-a-muck, ipse dixit, solipsism, anticlinal, analogical, amoral, alogical, synclinal, disinclined, iconological, studly, flitch and 179 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hapax legomenon.

myroblyte I learned this word from Geoff Nunberg Mar 31, 2010
garyth123 I shall say this only once... Sep 26, 2009
ramsler Your definition is too restrictive. hapex legomena are those word in a frequency count of any body of text which appear only once. The inference is that one cannot predict anything about their overall frequency based on a single occurrence. Jun 21, 2009
fbharjo perhaps more properly named happenstance legomenon Apr 19, 2009
shadytrees Obligatory Dinosaur Comics link. Mar 25, 2009
bilby Beautiful comment by wolfson. Wherever you are, we need you back. Dec 25, 2007
sionnach hapax legomenon, the googlewhack of ancient texts. Oct 8, 2007
akmed13 I found negromancer, presumably black magician, in the Burton translation of the Arabian Nights. Looked it up in the 2nd edition of OED & found it was listed as having occurred only once -- in Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights! Sep 18, 2007
stpeter Those of us who are on a first-name basis just call this one hapax. :-) Dec 10, 2006
wolfson How disappointing that hapax legomenon occurs in multiple lists. Dec 9, 2006
seanahan I had a professor who insisted we know the plural, hapax legomena Dec 2, 2006