What is a word?

"Despite 2,400 years or so of trying, it is unclear that anyone has ever come up with an adequate definition of any word whatsoever, even the simplest." Surprisingly few linguists and philosophers have a clear model of what a word is, even though words impact basically every aspect of human life. Researchers that regularly publish academic papers about language often rely on outdated, or inaccurate, assumptions about wordhood. As in all scientific disciplines, we have two notions to consider: 1. Our intuitive concept of'word' (which we all have, even though it can be vague, and sometimes hard to articulate fully, like most complex concepts). This is no different from other scientific concepts - for example, 'water' has a very intuitive meaning, but it also is linked to much more technical, formal notions emerging from chemistry and physics (Murphy 2023). This short pedagogical document outlines what the lexicon is most certainly not (though is often mistakenly taken to be), what it might be (based on current good theories), and what some implications for experimental design are. The central features of lexical items have no connection with sensorimotor instructions.