A lemma is the dictionary form of a word. It’s the way you look up a word in a dictionary. Now in order to explain it, forget Greek for a moment—let’s just focus on English. Let’s say you’re reading an English book and you come to the English word “loved,” and you want to look up “loved” in Webster’s Dictionary. Are you actually going to look up “loved”? No. What are you going to look up? “love.” “Love” is the lemma of “loved.” It’s the dictionary form. It’s the way you look up the word in a dictionary.