principal parts
a set of inflected forms of a form class from which all the other inflected forms can be derived, as sing, sang, sung; smoke, smoked.
Origin of principal parts
1Words Nearby principal parts
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use principal parts in a sentence
In most cases the principal parts of the plants alone were colored; the rest was only pencilled with great accuracy.
There are four principal parts distinguishable in this creature; the head, the breast, the belly, and the tail.
The Book of Curiosities | I. PlattsFrom three separate sources invisible currents are led to its principal parts, and are at once physically changed.
Heroes of the Telegraph | J. MunroFor this purpose, we shall take a short view of the culture of the Pine Apple in the principal parts of the Continent.
The different modes of cultivating the pine-apple | John Claudius LoudonThe following ministers took the principal parts in the services of that day: Mr. Grundy delivered the charge, from Titus ii.
Memorials of the Independent Churches in Northamptonshire | Thomas Coleman
British Dictionary definitions for principal parts
grammar the main inflected forms of a verb, from which all other inflections may be deduced. In English they are generally considered to consist of the third person present singular, present participle, past tense, and past participle
the sides and interior angles of a triangle
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
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