compositionality.

The principle that an expression's meaning depends on its parts' meanings and how those parts are combined.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• semantic compositionality
• principle of compositionality
• compositionality of language

On the page

The analysis uses compositionality to explain why reversing word order can change a sentence's meaning.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal / analytical. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Commonness: uncommon (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: Britannica semantics verifies complex meanings determined by simpler constituents; preserve contribution of combination structure, not just a list of component meanings. Writing functions: semantic analysis, language and rhetoric, conceptual distinction.