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The act of inventing a word or phrase
Answer for the clue "The act of inventing a word or phrase ", 9 letters:
neologism
Alternative clues for the word neologism
Word definitions for neologism in dictionaries
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"practice of innovation in language," 1772 (in a translation from French), from French néologisme , from neo- (see neo- ) + Greek logos "word" (see lecture (n.)) + -ism . Meaning "new word or expression" is from 1803. Neological is attested from 1754.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Word definitions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
noun EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS ▪ So the word is a relative neologism , and therefore lends itself easily to personal interpretations, for good or ill. ▪ The novel displayed Rolfe's fondness for neologism , verbal sumptuousness, and quirky spelling in its best ...
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. 1 (context linguistics English) A word or phrase which has recently been coined; a new word or phrase. 2 (context linguistics uncountable English) The act or instance of coining, or uttering a new word. 3 (context psychiatry English) The newly coined, ...
Usage examples of neologism.
This instability forces the mythologist to use a terminology adapted to it, and about which I should now like to say a word, because it often is a cause for irony: I mean neologism.
The phrases and neologisms which we take over and use without remembering their origin do not always come from writers we admire.
From this ancient tongue, which was early as familiar to him as the French, he borrowed certain mannerisms, certain tricks of style, certain neologisms, and also, to some extent, his simplicity of manner and the cadence of his prose.
This was a careful criticism of the neologisms introduced into French by the Revolution.
FORRY RHO DAN replies: If there is any word in this world that wordsmith Ellison hates, loathes, detests & abominates, it is "sci-fi," so rash reader Graham, prepare to be dangled by your participle over a pit of split infinitives until your gerund becomes positively putative, when Horrible Harlan learns of your heinous employment of the egregious neologism.
We are actually considerably less boreable, if I may create a neologism, than the average human.
I can identify a split infinitive or dangling participle or hyphenated neologism, but I'm not equipped to spot a tufted titmouse or yellow-bellied sapsucker.
And give the word neologism to our language, as a root, and it should give us it's fellow substantives, neology, neologist, neologisation.