What is the difference between a lexicon and a dictionary?
Is a lexicon just an über-big dictionary?
Learn English – Difference between lexicon and dictionary
differencessynonymsvocabulary
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Best Answer
A lexicon is a list of words that belong to a particular language.
Sometimes, lexicon is used as another word for thesaurus (see below)
A dictionary is a list of words and phrases that are (or were) in common usage, together with their definitions - so a dictionary is different from a lexicon because a lexicon is a simple list and doesn't define the words.
A thesaurus is a dictionary of synonyms (different words and phrases that have the same or similar meaning).
Finally, for completeness, a vocabulary is a list of words that an individual knows or uses regularly. Vocabulary is different from lexicon because vocabulary is about what an individual or group of people know, whereas lexicon is about the language itself.