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universal grammar

noun Linguistics.

a grammar that attempts to establish the properties and constraints common to all possible human languages.
an innate system of principles underlying the human language faculty.

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Question 1 of 9
You may have read the word "simmer" in a recipe or two, but what does it really mean?
To cook in water that begins cold and then reaches a boil.
To stew in a sauce for a long time.
To cook in water, just below boiling temperature.
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Words nearby universal grammar

Universal City, universal class, universal donor, universal gas constant, universal gas law, universal grammar, universalism, universalist, universality, universalizability, universalize
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

British Dictionary definitions for universal grammar

universal grammar

noun

linguistics (in Chomskyan transformation linguistics) the abstract limitations on the formal grammatical description of all human languages, actual or possible, that make them human languages
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