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Concordances and Collocations


Concordances -- kWIC format

The original concordances were book concordances in which an important work such as the bible was rearranged so that all instances of a word (e.g., forgive) are listed together, one instance to a line along with the preceding and following words.

This format (KWIC -- keyword in context) is very useful for getting an idea of the different uses or meanings of a word and for finding common patterns or phrases.

These days it is possible to use concordance software to generate a concordance.

Different uses of a word are often associated with different collocations (i.e., accompanying words). Thus you might find the verb post associated with letter in some lines and with notice in others.