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grammar

[ gram-er ]

/ ˈgræm ər /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR grammar

noun

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.

prescriptive grammar.

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.

VIDEO FOR GRAMMAR

WATCH NOW: Can You Correct These Grammatically Incorrect Song Lyrics?

These lyrics may be catchy, but there’s one, big grammatical error within them. Can you spot it?

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QUIZZES

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Even if you can't be a professional chef, you can at least talk like one with this vocabulary quiz.

Question 1 of 9

You may have read the word "simmer" in a recipe or two, but what does it really mean?

To cook in water that begins cold and then reaches a boil.

To stew in a sauce for a long time.

To cook in water, just below boiling temperature.

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Origin of grammar

1325–75; Middle English gramery<Old French gramaire<Latin gramatica<Greek grammatikḕ (téchnē) grammatical (art); see -ar²

OTHER WORDS FROM grammar

gram·mar·less, adjective

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH grammar

grammar , grandma, grandmother

Words nearby grammar

graminivorous, graminology, gram-ion, grammage, grammalogue, grammar, grammarian, grammar school, grammar-translation method, grammatical, grammatical gender

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

Example sentences from the Web for grammar

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 Review
Platform 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|Vox
If 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
There are particular theories of what might be in universal grammar.
Talking Is Throwing Fictional Worlds at One Another - Issue 89: The Dark Side|Kevin Berger|September 9, 2020|Nautilus

Your 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|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|DAILY BEAST
Fear 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|DAILY BEAST
When you approached T.I., London Grammar, and Fall Out Boy to do this, what was their initial response to it?
How Questlove Is Bringing Music Back to Television|Kevin Fallon|July 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
At one point did you think, “T.I., London Grammar, and Fall Out Boy together”?
How Questlove Is Bringing Music Back to Television|Kevin Fallon|July 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
What did those darned Muslims give us other than grammar and algebra?
Deconstructing David Brat’s ‘Scholarship’|Candida Moss|June 12, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It supported a grammar school, an almshouse for thirty-two poor people, and bestowed liberal gifts on the poor.
Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England|Edward L. Cutts
He could study the ancients with the young eyes of the Renaissance and read a Greek grammar like a book of love lyrics.
Varied Types|G. K. Chesterton
In these charters the peculiar characteristics of Italian orthography and grammar frequently appear.
View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, Vol. 3 (of 3)|Henry Hallam
Of these about half were in the primary and the grammar grades and about half in the high school.
The Evolution of the Country Community|Warren H. Wilson
At a parish school near by, John learned to spell and to repeat the rules of grammar.
Four American Naval Heroes|Mabel Beebe

British Dictionary definitions for grammar

grammar

/ (ˈɡræmə) /

noun

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 syntaxthe teacher told him to watch his grammar
(as modifier)a grammar book

the elementary principles of a science or artthe grammar of drawing

Derived forms of grammar

grammarless, adjective

Word Origin for grammar

C14: from Old French gramaire, from Latin grammatica, from Greek grammatikē (tekhnē) the grammatical (art), from grammatikos concerning letters, from gramma letter

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

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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