corpus

The word “corpus” means a large collection of written or spoken material, especially one used for language study. In plain terms, a large gathered body of texts or work, often used for research.

“Corpus” is pronounced KAW-puhs (/ˈkɔɹpəs/ in IPA).

Here is “corpus” used in a sentence: “Linguists analyzed word frequency using a corpus of news articles.”

“Corpus” is a noun.

The word “corpus” comes from Latin. Borrowed directly from Latin corpus, "body." A doublet of "corpse" and "corps".

“Corpus” is an uncommon word in modern English, usually learned at around the C2 level.

“Corpus” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a large collection of written or spoken material, especially one used for language study.

A corpus is specifically a large collection of written or spoken material, especially one compiled for language study, whereas a database is a broader term for any organized collection of data, not necessarily language. Linguists use a corpus to analyze patterns in real language use, such as word frequency or grammar trends.

Outside linguistics, "corpus" can refer more generally to the main body or bulk of something, such as a body of work, evidence, or knowledge on a subject. This broader sense is common in legal, academic, and general writing.

"Corpus" is singular; its plural form is "corpora." This Latin-derived pattern is important to get right in academic or linguistic writing, where referring to multiple text collections requires the plural "corpora."