collocation.

1. The habitual or characteristic co-occurrence of words in a language or usage.

2. The placing or arrangement of things together.

3. A numerical approximation method that requires an approximate solution to satisfy specified conditions at selected points.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• natural collocation
• lexical collocation

On the page

The natural collocation sounded familiar even though the sentence itself was new.

Lexical collocation explained why one adjective fitted the noun better than a near-synonym.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Singular collocation; plural collocations. Also uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: language analysis, sense distinction, word formation analysis, precise reference. Disciplines: academic writing, linguistics, dictionary and usage analysis. Commonness: moderately common.