corpus
/ˈkɔːpəs/
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Also seen as: corpora · corpuses · corpusses · corpi
Sense 1
Meaning · English
A collection of written or spoken texts.
Noun
Examples
No one suggests that Browning intended to mean vagina when he wrote “owls and bats, / Cowls and twats,” because the context does not allow for it, nor does the greater context of the Browning corpus.
Usage example from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01)
Sources & notes
Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01 via kaikki.org).
Sense 2
Meaning · English
A collection of written or spoken texts. — Such a collection in form of an electronic database used for linguistic analyses.
Noun
Examples
Text corpora are being used in most current lexicographic projects. Applied linguistic research is another field where text corpora are welcome as an inexhaustible source of empirical information, a polygon for testing various linguistic tools – spell-checkers, OCRs, machine translation systems, NLP
Usage example from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01)
Sources & notes
Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01 via kaikki.org).
Common questions
What does “corpus” mean?
A collection of written or spoken texts.
Is “corpus” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.