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function word

noun

  1. a word, as a preposition, article, auxiliary, or pronoun, that chiefly expresses grammatical relationships, has little semantic content of its own, and belongs to a small, closed class of words whose membership is relatively fixed ( content word ).


function word

noun

  1. grammar a word, such as the , with a particular grammatical role but little identifiable meaning Compare content word grammatical meaning
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of function word1

First recorded in 1935–40

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function spacefunctor