collocation

What is the opposite of collocation? Here is what we hold, with its meaning and related words.

Noun — A pair or group of words that habitually occur together and sound natural to native speakers, such as heavy rain or make a decision.

Synonyms by Meaning

1. noun linguistics

A pair or group of words that habitually occur together and sound natural to native speakers, such as heavy rain or make a decision.

“Learners often produce grammatical sentences that break basic collocations, such as saying strong rain.”

word partnership set phrase habitual pairing apposition juxtaposition

2. noun formal

The act of placing things side by side, or the arrangement that results.

“The collocation of the two portraits invites comparison.”

juxtaposition arrangement placement

How to use collocation

The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.

common collocations strong collocation collocation dictionary learn collocations collocation with

Mainly a term in language teaching and linguistics; the countable sense listing individual pairings is the common one.

Etymology

From Latin collocare meaning to place together, from com- with and locare to place.

Full origin of collocation →

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a collocation and an idiom?

A collocation still means what its words mean; heavy rain is simply a lot of rain, it just happens to be the pairing English prefers. An idiom means something the words do not say, such as spill the beans. Collocations are about naturalness, idioms about hidden meaning.

Why do collocations matter for learners?

Because grammar alone does not make a sentence sound right. Saying make homework instead of do homework is perfectly clear but immediately marks the speaker as non-native, so collocations are learned as whole units.

Is collocation the same as colocation?

No. Colocation, spelled with one L, is a business term for renting space to place your equipment in someone else's facility. The two words are unrelated despite the similar look.

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arrangement placement juxtaposition apposition

Nearby words

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