grammatical
Americanadjective
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of or relating to grammar.
grammatical analysis.
-
conforming to standard usage.
grammatical speech.
adjective
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of or relating to grammar
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(of a sentence) well formed; regarded as correct and acceptable by native speakers of the language
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of grammatical
1520–30; < Latin grammatic ( us ) (< Greek grammatikós knowing one's letters, equivalent to grammat-, stem of grámma letter + -ikos -ic ) + -al 1
Explanation
If your know-it-all friend advises you not to say, "Me and John went...," she is giving you grammatical advice. In other words, she's correcting your terrible grammar. (BTW, it should be "John and I...") The adjective grammatical comes up most often in English classes, since it describes anything having to do with parts of speech, syntax, and other elements of a well-written sentence. The Latin root word is grammaticalis, meaning "of a scholar," which in turn comes from the word grammaticus, "pertaining to grammar." If you're an authority on the English language, you can feel free to describe yourself as a grammatical scholar.
Vocabulary lists containing grammatical
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gram
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“They” and “them” have introduced new grammatical mysteries for the older students.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
These languages can often serve as great apprenticeship languages, teaching us how to learn a language and about grammatical structures.
From Science Daily ● May 22, 2026
One of the reasons Yautja has no grammatical gender is because that was most practical.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2025
Accusations of AI use are concerning, sure, but couldn’t they also result in a grammatical Streisand effect of people learning about or becoming reacquainted with the multipurpose mark?
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2025
It’s easy—and wrong—to diagnose the problem as a violation of a grammatical rule called subject control.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
