Meaning & use
hapax
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Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
A word or phrase that appears only once in a particular text, author's works, or language record.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a hapax' or 'several hapaxes'.
Patterns
- a hapax in something
- a hapax legomenon
The word 'glaive' is a hapax in Shakespeare's plays, appearing only once.
Scholars debated whether the term was a hapax or simply a scribal error.
In the corpus, 'flother' is a hapax, found in just one manuscript.
nouncountablefigurative
A person or thing that appears only once in a particular context or record.
Grammar: Often used in extended or humorous senses.
Patterns
- a hapax in something
The singer's cameo was a hapax in the band's long career.
That species is a hapax in the fossil record, known from a single specimen.
Word forms
| plural | hapaxes |
|---|
Common combinations
- hapax legomenon
- The phrase 'hapax legomenon' is itself a hapax legomenon in some texts.
- a hapax in the corpus
- The word 'sunbeam' is a hapax in the corpus, occurring only once.
- a biblical hapax
- Many biblical hapaxes have uncertain meanings.
- a hapax in the works of
- The term is a hapax in the works of Chaucer.
Synonyms and how they differ
- nonce word
- A nonce word is invented for a single occasion, while a hapax may be a real word that just happens to appear once.
- unique word
- Unique word is a broader term; a hapax is specifically a word occurring only once in a given text or collection.
Word family
- hapax legomenon noun
- The full technical term for a word or phrase appearing only once.
Commonly confused: hapax or hapax legomenon?
hapax vs hapax legomenon
This is the full phrase; 'hapax' alone is a shortened form.
Practice
In the sentence 'The word 'mome' is a hapax in the poem, appearing only once,' what does 'hapax' mean?
Choose one answer.
The context 'appearing only once' confirms the meaning. The other options describe different concepts like repetition, errors, or loanwords.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hapax”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.