Meanings
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1
noun
a law or statute, especially one expressed by its Latin title or discussed in Roman law
The jurist cited the lex as the governing rule in the dispute.
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2
verb
to perform lexical analysis on text or source code, converting characters into tokens
The compiler must lex the source before it can parse the program.
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3
noun
a particular inflected form of a word, as contrasted with its lexeme
The database stores each lex separately while linking it to a common lexeme.
Thesaurus
Etymology
The legal noun is borrowed directly from Latin lex, 'law.' The computing verb is a twentieth-century shortening of lexical analysis, ultimately from Greek lexis, 'word or speech.' The linguistic noun likewise belongs to the lexeme family.