grammar
the study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed; morphology and syntax.
these features or constructions themselves: English grammar.
an account of these features; a set of rules accounting for these constructions: a grammar of English.
Generative Grammar. a device, as a body of rules, whose output is all of the sentences that are permissible in a given language, while excluding all those that are not permissible.
knowledge or usage of the preferred or prescribed forms in speaking or writing: She said his grammar was terrible.
the elements of any science, art, or subject.
a book treating such elements.
Origin of grammar
1Other words from grammar
- gram·mar·less, adjective
Words that may be confused with grammar
- grammar , grandma, grandmother
Words Nearby grammar
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use grammar in a sentence
They had enough predictive power to be useful for applications like autocomplete, but not enough to generate a long sentence that followed grammar rules and common sense.
These weird, unsettling photos show that AI is getting smarter | Karen Hao | September 25, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewPlatform limitations, certainly, and an inherent understanding that it’s part of the internet’s cinematic grammar.
One Good Thing: The trick uniting the internet’s funniest videos | Emily VanDerWerff | September 25, 2020 | VoxYour ideas evoke probably the only controversy in the linguistics world that has spilled over to popular culture—the debate over “universal grammar.”
Talking Is Throwing Fictional Worlds at One Another - Issue 89: The Dark Side | Kevin Berger | September 9, 2020 | NautilusI wanted to take people’s minds away from this notion of grammar as something dry and boring, and something that people get told at school, and convey this fact that combining words into sentences is a wonder.
Talking Is Throwing Fictional Worlds at One Another - Issue 89: The Dark Side | Kevin Berger | September 9, 2020 | NautilusIf universal grammar is a capacity of the human species alone, then of course the Pirahã have universal grammar.
Talking Is Throwing Fictional Worlds at One Another - Issue 89: The Dark Side | Kevin Berger | September 9, 2020 | Nautilus
At his best, he was an inventor of part of the modern cinema's grammar.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTFear of offending the grammar police can even produce a novel type of error called a hypercorrection.
Go Ahead, End With a Preposition: Grammar Rules We All Can Live With | Nick Romeo | November 3, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe outraged grammar stickler mistakes a convention for an immutable and fundamental law of the universe.
Go Ahead, End With a Preposition: Grammar Rules We All Can Live With | Nick Romeo | November 3, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhen you approached T.I., London grammar, and Fall Out Boy to do this, what was their initial response to it?
At one point did you think, “T.I., London grammar, and Fall Out Boy together”?
The second grammar class had been relieved from a recitation by this confab, and somehow Perry had a subduing influence.
The Soldier of the Valley | Nelson LloydA barber having a dispute with a parish clerk on a point of grammar, the latter said it was a downright barbarism, indeed.
The Book of Anecdotes and Budget of Fun; | VariousFrench, the English grammar, and the rudiments of Latin comprised the only systematic training which she received.
The Childhood of Distinguished Women | Selina A. BowerThere was Cliff Manning, you turned the cold shoulder to him because he couldnt talk grammar.
Tessa Wadsworth's Discipline | Jennie M. DrinkwaterHe wouldnt talk grammar, or he couldnt spell or read Greek, and she will turn away, laughed Mrs. Wadsworth.
Tessa Wadsworth's Discipline | Jennie M. Drinkwater
British Dictionary definitions for grammar
/ (ˈɡræmə) /
the branch of linguistics that deals with syntax and morphology, sometimes also phonology and semantics
the abstract system of rules in terms of which a person's mastery of his native language can be explained
a systematic description of the grammatical facts of a language
a book containing an account of the grammatical facts of a language or recommendations as to rules for the proper use of a language
the use of language with regard to its correctness or social propriety, esp in syntax: the teacher told him to watch his grammar
(as modifier): a grammar book
the elementary principles of a science or art: the grammar of drawing
Origin of grammar
1Derived forms of grammar
- grammarless, adjective
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
Cultural definitions for grammar
The rules for standard use of words. A grammar is also a system for classifying and analyzing the elements of language.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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