lemma
noun
1.
a subsidiary proposition that is assumed to be true in order to prove another proposition
2.
the lower and stouter of the two glumes immediately enclosing the floret in most Gramineae
3.
the head of an annotation or gloss
Origin
Borrowed from Ancient Greek λῆμμᾰ (lêmmă, “premise, assumption”), from the same root as λᾰμβᾰ́νω (lămbắnō, “to take”).
Phrases
- Bézout's lemma
- Euclid's lemma
- five lemma
- Johnson-Lindenstrauss lemma
- Neyman-Pearson lemma
- pumping lemma
- Riemann-Lebesgue lemma
- Sperner's lemma
Related words
Broader terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.