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syntactic

[sin-tak-tik]
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adjective
  1. of or relating to syntax: syntactic errors in English; the syntactic rules for computer source code.
  2. consisting of or noting morphemes that are combined in the same order as they would be if they were separate words in a corresponding construction: The word blackberry, which consists of an adjective followed by a noun, is a syntactic compound.
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Also syn·tac·ti·cal.

Origin of syntactic

1570–80; < New Latin syntacticus < Greek syntaktikós, equivalent to syntakt(ós) ordered, arranged together, verbid of syntássein to arrange together (syn- syn- + tag-, base of tássein to arrange + -tos adj. suffix) + -ikos -ic; see tactic
Related formssyn·tac·ti·cal·ly, adverbnon·syn·tac·tic, adjectivenon·syn·tac·ti·cal, adjectivenon·syn·tac·ti·cal·ly, adverbun·syn·tac·tic, adjectiveun·syn·tac·ti·cal, adjectiveun·syn·tac·ti·cal·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

linguistic, semantic, acceptable, allowable, correct, morphological, phonological, syntactic

Examples from the Web for syntactic

Historical Examples

  • They are haunted by verbs, noun-substantives, roots, and syntactic passages.

    Dickens and His Illustrators

    Frederic G. Kitton

  • Only at that moment did language gain a semantic and syntactic dimension (as we call them in today's terminology).

  • Henceforth, the new design no longer takes place at a syntactic or a semantic level, but is pragmatically driven.

  • Language use seems so natural that its syntactic and value-loaded conventions are not questioned.

  • But stress has done more than articulate or unify sequences that in their own right imply a syntactic relation.

    Language

    Edward Sapir

British Dictionary definitions for syntactic

syntactic

adjective
  1. Also: synˈtactical relating to or determined by syntax
  2. logic linguistics describable wholly with respect to the grammatical structure of an expression or the rules of well-formedness of a formal system
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Derived Formssyntactically, adverb
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

Word Origin and History for syntactic

adj.

1807, from Modern Latin syntacticus, from Greek syntaktikos, from syntassein (see syntax).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper