Multilingual

Lexicographical Data

Explore Wikidata's lexemes: words, grammatical forms, and senses. Query linguistic data for language learning and research.

Lexeme Structure

Wikidata lexemes represent dictionary entries with three components:

Component Description Example
Lexeme The dictionary entry (word) L1234 "run" (English verb)
Form Grammatical variations "run", "runs", "ran", "running"
Sense Different meanings "to move quickly", "to operate"

Basic Lexeme Queries

Find English Nouns
Run ↗ 
SELECT ?lexeme ?lemma
WHERE {
  ?lexeme dct:language wd:Q1860 ;   # English
          wikibase:lexicalCategory wd:Q1084 ;  # noun
          wikibase:lemma ?lemma .
}
LIMIT 50
Multilingual Properties: dct:language, wikibase:lexicalCategory
Lexemes with Their Forms
Run ↗ 
SELECT ?lexeme ?lemma ?form ?formRep
WHERE {
  ?lexeme dct:language wd:Q1860 ;
          wikibase:lexicalCategory wd:Q24905 ;  # verb
          wikibase:lemma ?lemma ;
          ontolex:lexicalForm ?form .
  ?form ontolex:representation ?formRep .
  FILTER(STR(?lemma) = "run")
}
Multilingual Forms of the verb "run"

Programming Terminology

Programming Terms as Lexemes
Run ↗ 
SELECT ?lexeme ?lemma ?lang ?langLabel
WHERE {
  # Find lexemes whose sense links to programming concepts
  ?lexeme ontolex:sense ?sense .
  ?sense wdt:P5137 ?concept .  # item for this sense
  ?concept wdt:P31/wdt:P279* wd:Q17155032 .  # programming term

  ?lexeme wikibase:lemma ?lemma ;
          dct:language ?lang .

  SERVICE wikibase:label {
    bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" .
  }
}
LIMIT 50
Multilingual Domain: Programming

Cross-Language Word Comparisons

Same Concept in Different Languages
Run ↗ 
SELECT ?concept ?conceptLabel
       ?enLemma ?frLemma ?deLemma
WHERE {
  VALUES ?concept { wd:Q7239 }  # organism

  OPTIONAL {
    ?enLex ontolex:sense/wdt:P5137 ?concept ;
           dct:language wd:Q1860 ;  # English
           wikibase:lemma ?enLemma .
  }
  OPTIONAL {
    ?frLex ontolex:sense/wdt:P5137 ?concept ;
           dct:language wd:Q150 ;   # French
           wikibase:lemma ?frLemma .
  }
  OPTIONAL {
    ?deLex ontolex:sense/wdt:P5137 ?concept ;
           dct:language wd:Q188 ;   # German
           wikibase:lemma ?deLemma .
  }

  SERVICE wikibase:label {
    bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" .
  }
}
Multilingual Cross-language vocabulary

Key Lexeme Properties

Property Description
wikibase:lemma The canonical form of the word
dct:language Language of the lexeme (Q-item)
wikibase:lexicalCategory Part of speech (noun, verb, etc.)
ontolex:lexicalForm Grammatical forms
ontolex:sense Meanings/definitions
wdt:P5137 Item for this sense (links to Q-items)