This article looks at the lexicon from a term perspective and raises the question of the relationship between phraseology and meaning in use. In order to do so, we compare the achievements of two approaches that deal, more or less directly, with these issues: English language, more specifically the contextualist school around J. Sinclair and the analysis of the French traditional discourse. These studies highlight the determinations of terms, syntactics, textual, descriptive and pragmatic meanings in use, which are reflected by the concept of the lexico-discursive profile of a lexical unit in context. This concept is illustrated by three examples. After laying these epistemological and theoretical foundations, we conclude with didactic reflections on the importance of phraseology in access in the sense of the ELF and with proposals for activities.