This paper outlines an approach to lexical derivation lato sensu and provides new possibilities for an integrated treatment of the systematicity of the lexicon. It first reviews some traditional and current approaches to the concepts of derivation and word formation and presents some arguments to establish a boundary between these two phenomena. Furthermore, the article defines the concept of lexical derivation lato sensu that includes word formation as its central part and presents some proposals toward an adequate account of the derivation lato sensu and its relation to the analysis of the systematicity of the French lexicon. The principal innovation lies in the delimitation of other cross-subcategories of lexical derivation lato sensu, such as semantic derivation, suppletion, analytical derivation to describe derivational combinations in different languages. The approach presented allows us to capture the formal derivational meaning between productive and transparent derivational constructions using both – formal and semantic criteria (word formation), on the one hand, and the opaque derivational meaning based on semantic dimension (suppletive forms, analytical forms, etc.), on the other hand, and to structure more adequately the lexicon of a language.