| grammar | | |
| n. (cognition) | 1. grammar | the branch of linguistics that deals with syntax and morphology (and sometimes also deals with semantics). |
| ~ linguistics | the scientific study of language. |
| ~ descriptive grammar | a grammar that is produced by descriptive linguistics. |
| ~ prescriptive grammar | a grammar that is produced by prescriptive linguistics. |
| ~ syntax | studies of the rules for forming admissible sentences. |
| ~ morphology | studies of the rules for forming admissible words. |
| ~ descriptive linguistics | a description (at a given point in time) of a language with respect to its phonology and morphology and syntax and semantics without value judgments. |
| ~ head word, head | (grammar) the word in a grammatical constituent that plays the same grammatical role as the whole constituent. |
| ~ quantifier | (grammar) a word that expresses a quantity (as `fifteen' or `many'). |
| ~ grammatical category, syntactic category | (grammar) a category of words having the same grammatical properties. |
| ~ subject | (grammar) one of the two main constituents of a sentence; the grammatical constituent about which something is predicated. |
| ~ object | (grammar) a constituent that is acted upon.; "the object of the verb" |
| ~ grammatical constituent, constituent | (grammar) a word or phrase or clause forming part of a larger grammatical construction. |
| ~ clause | (grammar) an expression including a subject and predicate but not constituting a complete sentence. |
| ~ article | (grammar) a determiner that may indicate the specificity of reference of a noun phrase. |
| ~ modify, qualify | add a modifier to a constituent. |
| ~ parse | analyze syntactically by assigning a constituent structure to (a sentence). |
| ~ agree | show grammatical agreement.; "Subjects and verbs must always agree in English" |
| ~ dynamic, active | (used of verbs (e.g. `to run') and participial adjectives (e.g. `running' in `running water')) expressing action rather than a state of being. |
| ~ stative | ( used of verbs (e.g. `be' or `own') and most participial adjectives) expressing existence or a state rather than an action. |
| ~ active | expressing that the subject of the sentence has the semantic function of actor:.; "Hemingway favors active constructions" |
| ~ passive | expressing that the subject of the sentence is the patient of the action denoted by the verb.; "academics seem to favor passive sentences" |
| ~ attributive, prenominal | of adjectives; placed before the nouns they modify.; "`red' is an attributive adjective in `a red apple'" |
| ~ attributive genitive | a word in the genitive case used as an attributive adjective.; "an example of the attributive genitive is `John's' in `John's mother'" |
| ~ predicative | of adjectives; relating to or occurring within the predicate of a sentence.; "`red' is a predicative adjective in `the apple is red'" |
| ~ self-referent, reflexive | referring back to itself. |
| ~ coordinating, coordinative | serving to connect two grammatical constituents of identical construction.; "`and' in `John and Mary' or in `John walked and Mary rode' is a coordinating conjunction; and so is `or' in `will you go or stay?'" |
| ~ subordinating, subordinative | serving to connect a subordinate clause to a main clause.; "`when' in `I will come when I can' is a subordinating conjunction" |
| ~ copulative | syntactically connecting sentences or elements of a sentence.; "`and' is a copulative conjunction" |
| ~ contrastive | syntactically establishing a relation of contrast between sentences or elements of a sentence.; "disjunctive conjunctions like `but', `or', or `though' serve a contrastive function" |
| ~ main, independent | (of a clause) capable of standing syntactically alone as a complete sentence.; "the main (or independent) clause in a complex sentence has at least a subject and a verb" |
| ~ dependent, subordinate | (of a clause) unable to stand alone syntactically as a complete sentence.; "a subordinate (or dependent) clause functions as a noun or adjective or adverb within a sentence" |
| ~ descriptive | describing the structure of a language.; "descriptive grammar" |
| ~ prescriptive, normative | pertaining to giving directives or rules.; "prescriptive grammar is concerned with norms of or rules for correct usage" |
| ~ endocentric | fulfilling the grammatical role of one of its constituents.; "when `three blind mice' serves as a noun it is an endocentric construction" |
| ~ exocentric | not fulfilling the same grammatical role of any of its constituents.; "when `until last Easter' serves as an adverb it is an exocentric construction" |
| ~ finite | of verbs; relating to forms of the verb that are limited in time by a tense and (usually) show agreement with number and person. |
| ~ non-finite, infinite | of verbs; having neither person nor number nor mood (as a participle or gerund or infinitive).; "infinite verb form" |
| ~ illative | expressing or preceding an inference.; "`therefore' is an illative word" |
| ~ restricted, qualified | restricted in meaning; (as e.g. `man' in `a tall man'). |
| ~ unrestricted | not restricted or modified in meaning.; "unrestricted verbs are usually stronger than those qualified by adverbs" |
| ~ correlative | expressing a reciprocal or complementary relation.; "correlative conjunctions" |
| ~ weak | (used of verbs) having standard (or regular) inflection. |
| ~ strong | of verbs not having standard (or regular) inflection.; "`sing' is a strong verb" |
| ~ limiting | strictly limiting the reference of a modified word or phrase.; "the restrictive clause in `Each made a list of the books that had influenced him' limits the books on the list to only those particular ones defined by the clause" |
| ~ nonrestrictive | not limiting the reference of a modified word or phrase.; "the nonrestrictive clause in `I always buy his books, which have influenced me greatly,' refers to his books generally and adds an additional fact about them" |
| ~ syndetic | connected by a conjunction. |
| ~ asyndetic | lacking conjunctions. |
| ~ transitive | designating a verb that requires a direct object to complete the meaning. |
| ~ intransitive | designating a verb that does not require or cannot take a direct object. |
| ~ aoristic | of or relating to the aorist tense. |
| ~ nominal | pertaining to a noun or to a word group that functions as a noun.; "nominal phrase"; "noun phrase" |
| ~ nominative | serving as or indicating the subject of a verb and words identified with the subject of a copular verb.; "nominative noun endings"; "predicate nominative" |
| ~ accusative, objective | serving as or indicating the object of a verb or of certain prepositions and used for certain other purposes.; "objective case"; "accusative endings" |
| ~ genitive, possessive | serving to express or indicate possession.; "possessive pronouns"; "the genitive endings" |
| ~ scopal | of or relating to scope.; "scopal dependency" |
| ~ future | a verb tense or other formation referring to events or states that have not yet happened.; "future auxiliary" |
| ~ optative | relating to a mood of verbs in some languages.; "optative verb endings" |
| ~ subjunctive | relating to a mood of verbs.; "subjunctive verb endings" |
| ~ imperative | relating to verbs in the imperative mood. |
| ~ indicative, declarative | relating to the mood of verbs that is used simple in declarative statements.; "indicative mood" |
| ~ interrogative | relating to verbs in the so-called interrogative mood.; "not all questions have an interrogative construction" |
| ~ participial | of or relating to or consisting of participles.; "participial inflections" |
| ~ substantival | of or relating to or having the nature or function of a substantive (i.e. a noun or noun equivalent).; "a substantival constituent" |
| ~ gerundial | relating to or like a gerund.; "the gerundial suffix `-ing'" |
| ~ attributively | in an attributive manner.; "the genitive noun is used attributively" |
| text | | |
| n. (communication) | 1. text, textual matter | the words of something written.; "there were more than a thousand words of text"; "they handed out the printed text of the mayor's speech"; "he wants to reconstruct the original text" |
| ~ column | a page or text that is vertically divided.; "the newspaper devoted several columns to the subject"; "the bookkeeper used pages that were divided into columns" |
| ~ matter | written works (especially in books or magazines).; "he always took some reading matter with him on the plane" |
| ~ cookie | a short line of text that a web site puts on your computer's hard drive when you access the web site. |
| ~ word order | the order of words in a text. |
| ~ written matter, copy | matter to be printed; exclusive of graphical materials. |
| ~ draft copy, draft | any of the various versions in the development of a written work.; "a preliminary draft"; "the final draft of the constitution" |
| ~ electronic text | text that is in a form that computer can store or display on a computer screen. |
| ~ instalment, installment | a part of a published serial. |
| ~ book | a major division of a long written composition.; "the book of Isaiah" |
| ~ chapter | a subdivision of a written work; usually numbered and titled.; "he read a chapter every night before falling asleep" |
| ~ foreword, preface, prolusion | a short introductory essay preceding the text of a book. |
| ~ paragraph | one of several distinct subdivisions of a text intended to separate ideas; the beginning is usually marked by a new indented line. |
| ~ passage | a section of text; particularly a section of medium length. |
| ~ publication | a copy of a printed work offered for distribution. |
| ~ letter, missive | a written message addressed to a person or organization.; "mailed an indignant letter to the editor" |
| ~ line | text consisting of a row of words written across a page or computer screen.; "the letter consisted of three short lines"; "there are six lines in every stanza" |
| ~ lipogram | a text that excludes a particular letter or particular letters of the alphabet. |
| ~ lyric, words, language | the text of a popular song or musical-comedy number.; "his compositions always started with the lyrics"; "he wrote both words and music"; "the song uses colloquial language" |
| ~ stanza | a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem. |
| n. (communication) | 2. text | a passage from the Bible that is used as the subject of a sermon.; "the preacher chose a text from Psalms to introduce his sermon" |
| ~ passage | a section of text; particularly a section of medium length. |
| ~ bible, christian bible, good book, holy scripture, holy writ, scripture, word of god, book, word | the sacred writings of the Christian religions.; "he went to carry the Word to the heathen" |
| n. (communication) | 3. school text, schoolbook, text, text edition, textbook | a book prepared for use in schools or colleges.; "his economics textbook is in its tenth edition"; "the professor wrote the text that he assigned students to buy" |
| ~ book | a written work or composition that has been published (printed on pages bound together).; "I am reading a good book on economics" |
| ~ crammer | a textbook designed for cramming. |
| ~ introduction | a basic or elementary instructional text. |
| ~ primer | an introductory textbook. |
| ~ reader | one of a series of texts for students learning to read. |
| n. (communication) | 4. text | the main body of a written work (as distinct from illustrations or footnotes etc.).; "pictures made the text easier to understand" |
| ~ matter | written works (especially in books or magazines).; "he always took some reading matter with him on the plane" |
| word | | |
| n. (communication) | 1. word | a unit of language that native speakers can identify.; "words are the blocks from which sentences are made"; "he hardly said ten words all morning" |
| ~ language unit, linguistic unit | one of the natural units into which linguistic messages can be analyzed. |
| ~ anagram | a word or phrase spelled by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase. |
| ~ anaphor | a word (such as a pronoun) used to avoid repetition; the referent of an anaphor is determined by its antecedent. |
| ~ antonym, opposite, opposite word | a word that expresses a meaning opposed to the meaning of another word, in which case the two words are antonyms of each other.; "to him the antonym of `gay' was `depressed'" |
| ~ back-formation | a word invented (usually unwittingly by subtracting an affix) on the assumption that a familiar word derives from it. |
| ~ charade | a word acted out in an episode of the game of charades. |
| ~ cognate word, cognate | a word is cognate with another if both derive from the same word in an ancestral language. |
| ~ content word, open-class word | a word to which an independent meaning can be assigned. |
| ~ contraction | a word formed from two or more words by omitting or combining some sounds.; "`won't' is a contraction of `will not'"; "`o'clock' is a contraction of `of the clock'" |
| ~ deictic, deictic word | a word specifying identity or spatial or temporal location from the perspective of a speaker or hearer in the context in which the communication occurs.; "words that introduce particulars of the speaker's and hearer's shared cognitive field into the message" |
| ~ derivative | (linguistics) a word that is derived from another word.; "`electricity' is a derivative of `electric'" |
| ~ diminutive | a word that is formed with a suffix (such as -let or -kin) to indicate smallness. |
| ~ dirty word | a word that is considered to be unmentionable.; "`failure' is a dirty word to him" |
| ~ dissyllable, disyllable | a word having two syllables. |
| ~ descriptor, form, signifier, word form | the phonological or orthographic sound or appearance of a word that can be used to describe or identify something.; "the inflected forms of a word can be represented by a stem and a list of inflections to be attached" |
| ~ four-letter anglo-saxon word, four-letter word | any of several short English words (often having 4 letters) generally regarded as obscene or offensive. |
| ~ closed-class word, function word | a word that is uninflected and serves a grammatical function but has little identifiable meaning. |
| ~ guide word, guideword, catchword | a word printed at the top of the page of a dictionary or other reference book to indicate the first or last item on that page. |
| ~ head word, head | (grammar) the word in a grammatical constituent that plays the same grammatical role as the whole constituent. |
| ~ headword | a word placed at the beginning of a line or paragraph (as in a dictionary entry). |
| ~ heteronym | two words are heteronyms if they are spelled the same way but differ in pronunciation.; "the word `bow' is an example of a heteronym" |
| ~ holonym, whole name | a word that names the whole of which a given word is a part.; "`hat' is a holonym for `brim' and `crown'" |
| ~ homonym | two words are homonyms if they are pronounced or spelled the same way but have different meanings. |
| ~ hypernym, superordinate word, superordinate | a word that is more generic than a given word. |
| ~ hyponym, subordinate word, subordinate | a word that is more specific than a given word. |
| ~ key word | a significant word used in indexing or cataloging. |
| ~ hybrid, loan-blend, loanblend | a word that is composed of parts from different languages (e.g., `monolingual' has a Greek prefix and a Latin root). |
| ~ loanword, loan | a word borrowed from another language; e.g. `blitz' is a German word borrowed into modern English. |
| ~ meronym, part name | a word that names a part of a larger whole.; "`brim' and `crown' are meronyms of `hat'" |
| ~ metonym | a word that denotes one thing but refers to a related thing.; "Washington is a metonym for the United States government"; "plastic is a metonym for credit card" |
| ~ monosyllabic word, monosyllable | a word or utterance of one syllable. |
| ~ neologism, neology, coinage | a newly invented word or phrase. |
| ~ hapax legomenon, nonce word | a word with a special meaning used for a special occasion. |
| ~ oxytone | word having stress or an acute accent on the last syllable. |
| ~ palindrome | a word or phrase that reads the same backward as forward. |
| ~ primitive | a word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms.; "`pick' is the primitive from which `picket' is derived" |
| ~ paroxytone | word having stress or acute accent on the next to last syllable. |
| ~ partitive | word (such a `some' or `less') that is used to indicate a part as distinct from a whole. |
| ~ polysemant, polysemantic word, polysemous word | a word having more than one meaning. |
| ~ polysyllabic word, polysyllable | a word of more than three syllables. |
| ~ proparoxytone | word having stress or acute accent on the antepenult. |
| ~ quantifier | (grammar) a word that expresses a quantity (as `fifteen' or `many'). |
| ~ logical quantifier, quantifier | (logic) a word (such as `some' or `all' or `no') that binds the variables in a logical proposition. |
| ~ reduplication | a word formed by or containing a repeated syllable or speech sound (usually at the beginning of the word). |
| ~ retronym | a word introduced because an existing term has become inadequate.; "Nobody ever heard of analog clocks until digital clocks became common, so `analog clock' is a retronym" |
| ~ substantive | any word or group of words functioning as a noun. |
| ~ equivalent word, synonym | two words that can be interchanged in a context are said to be synonymous relative to that context. |
| ~ term | a word or expression used for some particular thing.; "he learned many medical terms" |
| ~ nomenclature, terminology, language | a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline.; "legal terminology"; "biological nomenclature"; "the language of sociology" |
| ~ trisyllable | a word having three syllables. |
| ~ manner name, troponym | a word that denotes a manner of doing something.; "`march' is a troponym of `walk'" |
| ~ spoken word, vocable | a word that is spoken aloud. |
| ~ syllable | a unit of spoken language larger than a phoneme.; "the word `pocket' has two syllables" |
| ~ affix | a linguistic element added to a word to produce an inflected or derived form. |
| ~ classifier | a word or morpheme used in some languages in certain contexts (such as counting) to indicate the semantic class to which the counted item belongs. |
| ~ written word | the written form of a word.; "while the spoken word stands for something, the written word stands for something that stands for something"; "a craftsman of the written word" |
| ~ syncategorem, syncategoreme | a syncategorematic expression; a word that cannot be used alone as a term in a logical proposition.; "logical quantifiers, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions are called syncategoremes" |
| n. (communication) | 2. word | a brief statement.; "he didn't say a word about it" |
| ~ statement | a message that is stated or declared; a communication (oral or written) setting forth particulars or facts etc.; "according to his statement he was in London on that day" |
| n. (communication) | 3. intelligence, news, tidings, word | information about recent and important events.; "they awaited news of the outcome" |
| ~ info, information | a message received and understood. |
| ~ good word | good news. |
| ~ latest | the most recent news or development.; "have you heard the latest?" |
| ~ update | news that updates your information. |
| n. (communication) | 4. word | a verbal command for action.; "when I give the word, charge!" |
| ~ order | (often plural) a command given by a superior (e.g., a military or law enforcement officer) that must be obeyed.; "the British ships dropped anchor and waited for orders from London" |
| n. (communication) | 5. discussion, give-and-take, word | an exchange of views on some topic.; "we had a good discussion"; "we had a word or two about it" |
| ~ oral communication, speech communication, spoken communication, spoken language, voice communication, language, speech | (language) communication by word of mouth.; "his speech was garbled"; "he uttered harsh language"; "he recorded the spoken language of the streets" |
| ~ argumentation, debate, argument | a discussion in which reasons are advanced for and against some proposition or proposal.; "the argument over foreign aid goes on and on" |
| ~ deliberation | (usually plural) discussion of all sides of a question.; "the deliberations of the jury" |
| ~ group discussion, conference | a discussion among participants who have an agreed (serious) topic. |
| ~ panel discussion | discussion of a subject of public interest by a group of persons forming a panel usually before an audience. |
| ~ post-mortem, postmortem | discussion of an event after it has occurred. |
| ~ public discussion, ventilation | free and open discussion of (or debate on) some question of public interest.; "such a proposal deserves thorough public discussion" |
| ~ negotiation, talks, dialogue | a discussion intended to produce an agreement.; "the buyout negotiation lasted several days"; "they disagreed but kept an open dialogue"; "talks between Israelis and Palestinians" |
| n. (communication) | 6. parole, word, word of honor | a promise.; "he gave his word" |
| ~ promise | a verbal commitment by one person to another agreeing to do (or not to do) something in the future. |
| n. (quantity) | 7. word | a word is a string of bits stored in computer memory.; "large computers use words up to 64 bits long" |
| ~ computer memory unit | a unit for measuring computer memory. |
| ~ byte | a sequence of 8 bits (enough to represent one character of alphanumeric data) processed as a single unit of information. |
| ~ kib, kibibyte, kilobyte, kb, k | a unit of information equal to 1024 bytes. |
| n. (person) | 8. logos, son, word | the divine word of God; the second person in the Trinity (incarnate in Jesus). |
| ~ messiah | Jesus Christ; considered by Christians to be the promised deliverer. |
| ~ hypostasis of christ, hypostasis | any of the three persons of the Godhead constituting the Trinity especially the person of Christ in which divine and human natures are united. |
| ~ christ, deliverer, good shepherd, jesus, jesus christ, jesus of nazareth, redeemer, savior, saviour, the nazarene | a teacher and prophet born in Bethlehem and active in Nazareth; his life and sermons form the basis for Christianity (circa 4 BC - AD 29). |
| n. (communication) | 9. countersign, parole, password, watchword, word | a secret word or phrase known only to a restricted group.; "he forgot the password" |
| ~ arcanum, secret | information known only to a special group.; "the secret of Cajun cooking" |
| ~ positive identification | evidence proving that you are who you say you are; evidence establishing that you are among the group of people already known to the system; recognition by the system leads to acceptance.; "a system for positive identification can prevent the use of a single identity by several people" |
| n. (communication) | 10. bible, book, christian bible, good book, holy scripture, holy writ, scripture, word, word of god | the sacred writings of the Christian religions.; "he went to carry the Word to the heathen" |
| ~ religious text, religious writing, sacred text, sacred writing | writing that is venerated for the worship of a deity. |
| ~ family bible | a large Bible with pages to record marriages and births. |
| ~ vulgate | the Latin edition of the Bible translated from Hebrew and Greek mainly by St. Jerome at the end of the 4th century; as revised in 1592 it was adopted as the official text for the Roman Catholic Church. |
| ~ douay-rheims bible, douay-rheims version, douay bible, douay version, rheims-douay bible, rheims-douay version | an English translation of the Vulgate by Roman Catholic scholars. |
| ~ authorized version, king james bible, king james version | an English translation of the Bible published in 1611. |
| ~ revised version | a British revision of the Authorized Version. |
| ~ new english bible | a modern English version of the Bible and Apocrypha. |
| ~ american revised version, american standard version | a revised version of the King James Version. |
| ~ revised standard version | a revision of the American Standard Version. |
| ~ old testament | the collection of books comprising the sacred scripture of the Hebrews and recording their history as the chosen people; the first half of the Christian Bible. |
| ~ testament | either of the two main parts of the Christian Bible. |
| ~ new testament | the collection of books of the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the Pauline and other epistles, and Revelation; composed soon after Christ's death; the second half of the Christian Bible. |
| ~ covenant | (Bible) an agreement between God and his people in which God makes certain promises and requires certain behavior from them in return. |
| ~ eisegesis | personal interpretation of a text (especially of the Bible) using your own ideas. |
| ~ exegesis | an explanation or critical interpretation (especially of the Bible). |
| ~ text | a passage from the Bible that is used as the subject of a sermon.; "the preacher chose a text from Psalms to introduce his sermon" |
| ~ gabriel | (Bible) the archangel who was the messenger of God. |
| ~ noachian deluge, noah's flood, noah and the flood, the flood | (Biblical) the great deluge that is said in the Book of Genesis to have occurred in the time of Noah; it was brought by God upon the earth because of the wickedness of human beings. |
| ~ demythologise, demythologize | remove the mythical element from (writings).; "the Bible should be demythologized and examined for its historical value" |
| v. (communication) | 11. articulate, formulate, give voice, phrase, word | put into words or an expression.; "He formulated his concerns to the board of trustees" |
| ~ ask | direct or put; seek an answer to.; "ask a question" |
| ~ evince, express, show | give expression to.; "She showed her disappointment" |
| ~ lexicalise, lexicalize | make or coin into a word or accept a new word into the lexicon of a language.; "The concept expressed by German `Gemuetlichkeit' is not lexicalized in English" |
| ~ dogmatise, dogmatize | state as a dogma. |
| ~ formularise, formularize | express as a formula. |
| ~ couch, redact, put, frame, cast | formulate in a particular style or language.; "I wouldn't put it that way"; "She cast her request in very polite language" |
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