adjective

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See also: adjectivé

English

Etymology

From Middle English adjectif, adjective, from Old French adjectif, from Latin adiectivus, from adiciō + -īvus, from ad- (“to, towards, at”) + iaciō (“throw”). The Latin word adiectivus in turn was a calque of Ancient Greek ἐπιθετικόν (epithetikón, “added”), a derivative of the compound verb ἐπιτίθημι (epitíthēmi), from which also comes epithet.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɪk.tɪv/, /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɛk.tɪv/, /ˈæd͡ʒ.ək.tɪv/, /ˈæd͡ʒ.ə.tɪv/
    • Audio (GA)(file)

Noun

adjective (plural adjectives)

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
  2. (grammar) A word that modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes a noun’s referent.
    The words “big” and “heavy” are English adjectives.
  3. (obsolete) A dependent; an accessory.
    • 1648, Thomas Fuller, The History of the University of Cambridge since the Conquest:
      it must be an adjective of dain

Synonyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

adjective (not comparable)

  1. (grammar) Adjectival; pertaining to or functioning as an adjective.
    Synonym: adjectival
  2. (law) Applying to methods of enforcement and rules of procedure.
    Synonym: procedural
    Antonym: substantive
  3. (chemistry, of a dye) Needing the use of a mordant to be made fast to that which is being dyed.
    Antonym: substantive
  4. (obsolete, reflected in the chemical sense, but extinct as a general sense) Incapable of independent function.
    • 1899, John Jay Chapman, Emerson and Other Essays, AMS Press (1969) (as reproduced in Project Gutenberg)
      In fact, God is of not so much importance in Himself, but as the end towards which man tends. That irreverent person who said that Browning uses “God” as a pigment made an accurate criticism of his theology. In Browning, God is adjective to man.
    Synonyms: dependent, derivative
    Coordinate terms: adjunct, adjunctive, adjutant

Translations

adjectival — see adjectival

Verb

adjective (third-person singular simple present adjectives, present participle adjectiving, simple past and past participle adjectived)

  1. (transitive) To make an adjective of; to form or convert into an adjective.
    • 1805, John Horne Tooke, Epea Pteroenta: or The Diversions of Purley Part 2
      Language has as much occasion to adjective the distinct signification of the verb, and to adjective also the mood, as it has to adjective time. It has adjectived all three.
    • 1832, William Hunter, An Anglo-Saxon grammar, and derivatives, page 46:
      In English, instead of adjectiving our own substantives, we have borrowed, in immense numbers, adjectived signs from other languages […]
  2. (transitive, chiefly as a participle) To characterize with an adjective; to describe by using an adjective.

Synonyms

Translations

See also

(converting into or using as another part of speech:)

French

Pronunciation

Adjective

adjective

  1. feminine singular of adjectif

Latin

Adjective

adjectīve

  1. vocative masculine singular of adjectīvus

Portuguese

Verb

adjective

  1. inflection of adjectivar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Romanian

Pronunciation

Noun

adjective

  1. plural of adjectiv

Scots

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

From Latin (nomen) adjectivum.

Noun

adjective (plural adjectives)

  1. (grammar) adjective
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