Word usage: Encyclopedia - Word usage

Word usage

Word Usage is how a word, phrase, or concept is used in a language. Lexicographers gather samples of written or spoken instances where a word is used and analyze them to determine patterns of regional or social usage as well as meaning. A word, for example the English word "donny" (a round rock about the size of a man's head) may be only a rare regional usage, or a word may used world wide by all English speakers and have one or several evolving definitions such as the word "hacker."

Word usage may also involve grammar and thus be the subject of profound analysis.

See the following pages for some examples of word usages:

• Who (pronoun)
• Than
• While
• Gender-neutral pronoun

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Word usage", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki