modifier

American  

[mod-uh-fahy-er] / ˈmɒd əˌfaɪ ər /

noun

1. a person or thing that modifies.

2. Grammar.

   1. a word, phrase, or sentence element that limits or qualifies the sense of another word, phrase, or element in the same construction.

   2. the immediate constituent of an endocentric construction that is not the head.

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modifier British  

/ ˈmɒdɪˌfaɪə /

noun

1. 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

2. a person or thing that modifies

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modifier Cultural  

1. A word or group of words that describes or limits a verb, noun, adjective, or adverb. Modifiers applied to nouns are adjectives. Modifiers applied to verbs or adjectives are adverbs. Those that are applied to adverbs themselves are also called adverbs.

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Grammar

See dangling participle, misplaced modifier.

Etymology

Origin of modifier

First recorded in 1575–85; modify + -er ¹

Explanation

A modifier is a word that describes or changes another word. Adjectives and adverbs are fun modifiers. They can turn a “man” into a “strange man” or make him “act strangely.” To modify is to change slightly, so a modifier is anything that makes this change. Modifiers are popular in grammar land, but you could say that chocolate is a mood modifier, for example. An editor, who alters a few sentences, can be described as a modifier of the original manuscript. In the world of science, a modifier is a kind of gene that changes the effect of another gene. Modifier comes from the Latin word modificare, "to limit or restrain."

Example Sentences

Scientists from Mass General Brigham and the Broad Institute are exploring new therapeutic approaches and have identified a genetic modifier that could point toward a future treatment strategy.

From Science Daily • Dec. 12, 2025

But Helen Knight, NICE’s director of medicines evaluation, argues that the severity modifier is working.

From BBC • Oct. 17, 2024

Lynch’s dystopian novel, which won the Booker Prize on Sunday, is at once so particularly Irish yet so universally familiar that it deserves the overused modifier “Kafkaesque.”

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 29, 2023

We also discovered modifier genes that encode for some proteins that help repair damaged DNA.

From Salon • Feb. 26, 2023

Would you like paper or conveniently? is ungrammatical, because conveniently is a modifier, and it’s a modifier that doesn’t work with like; you would never say Would you like conveniently?

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker