modifier
- a person or thing that modifies.
- Grammar.
- a word, phrase, or sentence element that limits or qualifies the sense of another word, phrase, or element in the same construction.
- the immediate constituent of an endocentric construction that is not the head.
Origin of modifier
Usage note
Examples from the Web for modifier
Contemporary Examples of modifier
On the summer programming spectrum, it skewed more towards “just plain silly,” sans the “but still curious” modifier.
But not effortlessly charming, which is usually the modifier when someone uses "charming" as an adjective.
The ‘Zionist’ modifier is crucial because it differentiates between the situation in Israel/Palestine and Afrikaaner Apartheid.
Historical Examples of modifier
Y is a modifier of X, but unless X is present Y can produce no effect.
Mimicry in ButterfliesReginald Crundall Punnett
Electricity as a modifier of properties in turn throws flame into eclipse.
Inventors at WorkGeorge Iles
In some of these examples, the predicate adjective has a modifier.
An Advanced English Grammar with ExercisesGeorge Lyman Kittredge
No modifier should be inserted between to and the infinitive.
An Advanced English Grammar with ExercisesGeorge Lyman Kittredge
Eosin may be said to be a modifier of vermilion or vermilion of eosin.
A Critique of the Theory of EvolutionThomas Hunt Morgan
modifier
- Also called: qualifier grammar a word or phrase that qualifies the sense of another word; for example, the noun alarm is a modifier of clock in alarm clock and the phrase every day is an adverbial modifier of walks in he walks every day
- a person or thing that modifies
Word Origin and History for modifier
1580s, agent noun of modify. Grammatical sense is from 1865.