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A
A word or expression that occurs only once in the entire surviving corpus of a given language, author, or body of work.
— Linguistics reference
B
From the Greek meaning 'said only once' — a term used in biblical scholarship, classical philology, and corpus linguistics.
— Greek etymology
C
Particularly important in biblical scholarship, where a hapax legomenon creates interpretive challenges as there is no other contextual usage to draw on for meaning.
— Biblical scholarship
D
Shakespeare is estimated to have used over six hundred hapax legomena — words appearing only once in his complete works — many of which he may have coined.
— Shakespeare lexicography
E
The Linear B tablet archive from Mycenae contains the highest density of hapax legomena of any ancient text, attributed to the administrative nature of the documents.
— Linear B scholarship