An ELT Glossary : Lexical Chunks

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Lexical chunk is an umbrella term for "words that go together" and covers various types of lexical relationships such as:

• collocations (eg heavy rain, wild idea, narrow minded, depend on)

• idioms ( eg not in a month of Sundays, beat around the bush, let the cat out of the bag) 

• polywords (in spite of, of course, by dint of) 

• binomials (tried and tested, sink or swim)

• trinomials (hook, line and sinker, tall, dark and handsome, blood, sweat and tears)

• multiword verbs (give over, take after, run out of, take up with)

• gambits (The thing is..., If you ask me..., Can I just say that...)

Test Your Understanding...

...with this activity: Lexical Chunks (1)

Recommended Reading


Lewis, M. The Lexical Approach, CENGAGE ELT