Content words are called—

The correct option is lexical words.

Step-by-Step Explanation:

1. Understanding Content Words:
Content words (also known as open-class words) are words that carry primary meaning or information in a sentence. They include nouns, main verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Because they provide the core lexical content of a language, they are formally referred to as lexical words.

2. Analyzing the Options:
• functors / grammatical words / empty words: These terms refer to function words (such as prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, and articles) that express grammatical relationships between other words rather than carrying inherent semantic meaning.
• lexical words: This is the exact linguistic term used for content words because they possess independent lexical meaning.

Therefore, content words are called lexical words.