Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

syntactic

[sin-tak-tik]
See more synonyms for syntactic on Thesaurus.com
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.
Show More
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

linguisticsemanticacceptableallowablecorrectmorphologicalphonologicalsyntactic

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
Show More
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).

Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper