Lexical entrainment is the phenomenon in conversational linguistics of the process of the subject adopting the reference terms of their interlocutor.
In practice, it acts as a mechanism of the cooperative principle in which both parties to the conversation employ lexical entrainment as a progressive system to develop "conceptual pacts"[1] (a working temporary conversational terminology) to ensure maximum clarity of reference in the communication between the parties; this process is necessary to overcome the ambiguity[2] inherent in the multitude of synonyms that exist in language.
Lexical entrainment arises by two cooperative mechanisms:[3] Once lexical entrainment has come to determine the phrasing for a referent, both parties will use that terminology for the referent for the duration, even if it proceeds to violate the Gricean maxim of quantity.
[4] Another important factor is lexical availability; the ease of conceptualizing a referent in a certain way and then retrieving and producing a label for it.
If in a set of objects one is to refer to either a husky, a table, and a poster, people are still most likely to use the word "dog."