verbal noun

American  

[vur-buhl noun] / ˈvɜr bəl ˈnaʊn /

noun

Grammar.

1. a noun derived from a verb, especially by a process applicable to most or all verbs. In English, a verbal noun uses the -ing form, as in , or the infinitive form, as in In Latin, examples of verbal nouns include dictiō “act of speaking, utterance” (from dīcere “to say, tell, speak”) and cantus “singing, song” (from canere ”to sing“).

   Eating is fun

   To see is to believe.

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verbal noun British  

noun

1. a noun derived from a verb, such as smoking in the sentence smoking is bad for you See also gerund

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Etymology

Origin of verbal noun

First recorded in 1700–10

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

verbal noun

In some verbs the root itself, without any addition, is the verbal noun.

From A Handbook of the Cornish Language chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature by Henry Jenner

Gerund, distinguished from participle and verbal noun, 177. forms of, 176. in syntax, possessive case with, 285.

From An English Grammar by James Witt Sewell

Prohibit was formerly construed, as forbid still is, with the infinitive, but the construction with from and the verbal noun has now entirely superseded the older usage.

From English Synonyms and Antonyms With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions by James Champlin Fernald

Aren, or aen, eco-aco-co are case terminations; tcea-cea marks the verbal noun.

From Basque Legends With an Essay on the Basque Language by Wentworth Webster

Infinitives.+—The infinitive form of the verb is often called a verbal noun, because it partakes of the nature both of the verb and of the noun.

From Composition-Rhetoric by Stratton D. Brooks