There is disclosed a method and system to operate a software application entirely based on a unitary lexicon data structure (LDS) record comprising a plurality of data field definition blocks stored in memory, with one LDS record for each lexicon term. The LDS is used to develop computerized lexicons and deploy them for use to operate a lexical application with all data displayed for viewing and input by the user on a single screen to which all desired data items come, rather than the user navigating to fields statically located on a multitude of screens. Each LDS record contains a whole set of data in memory, with data duplicated across LDS records in order to bypass the need for the application to interoperate with a database to input and display related data. There is a graphical icon also of a unitary format into which all data is input and displayed. Input data items are related to one another in the icon, regardless of whether a relational database is configured to interoperate with the system.