The Online Scholar Institute

✅ Definition:

A hapax legomenon is a word or expression that appears only once in a specific context — this could be an entire language, a single text, or an author’s body of work.

These rare words are especially interesting in linguistics, literature, and biblical studies, because they can be tricky to interpret without other examples for comparison.

💡 Examples:

• In Shakespeare’s works, the word honorificabilitudinitatibus (from Love’s Labour’s Lost) is a hapax legomenon — it appears only once in all his writings.
• In the Bible, the Hebrew word achzib (Micah 1:14) is another example — it appears just once in the entire text.

🧠 Quick Tip to Remember:

• “Hapax” = once
• “Legomenon” = said/spoken
  ➡ So, literally, it means “something said only once.”

Use this term in your CXC or CSEC exam prep to impress your teachers and boost your literary vocabulary!