verb

[ vurb ]

noun

1. any member of a class of words that function as the main elements of predicates, that typically express action, state, or a relation between two things, and that may be inflected for tense, aspect, voice, mood, and to show agreement with their subject or object.

verb

/ vɜːb /

noun

1. (in traditional grammar) any of a large class of words in a language that serve to indicate the occurrence or performance of an action, the existence of a state or condition, etc. In English, such words as run, make, do, and the like are verbs
2. in modern descriptive linguistic analysis
   1. a word or group of words that functions as the predicate of a sentence or introduces the predicate
   2. ( as modifier )

      a verb phrase

verb

1. A word that represents an action or a state of being. Go , strike , travel , and exist are examples of verbs. A verb is the essential part of the predicate of a sentence. The grammatical forms of verbs include number , person , and tense . ( See auxiliary verb , infinitive , intransitive verb , irregular verb , participle , regular verb , and transitive verb .)

Grammar Note

The key word in most sentences, the word that reveals what is happening, is the verb. It can declare something ( You ran ), ask a question ( Did you run? ), convey a command ( Run faster! ), or express a wish ( May this good weather last! ) or a possibility ( If you had run well, you might have won; if you run better tomorrow, you may win ). You cannot have a complete English sentence without at least one verb. Understandably, this multitalented part of speech can be analyzed and categorized in any of several ways. For example, this dictionary distinguishes between a transitive verb, labeled “(used with object),” as in The country fought two wars at the same time, and an intransitive verb, labeled “(used without object),” as in He fought in both of them. As we can see with fight, some verbs can be either transitive or intransitive. Another analysis is offered by the grammarians Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik in their renowned A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. They divide verbs into three categories: (1) modal auxiliary verbs, a short list comprising can, may, will, shall, could, might, would, should, and must, all of which are “helping” verbs, as in Congress will vote tomorrow, and (2) primary verbs, the smallest group— be, do, and have —all three of which can be either auxiliaries ( I am leaving for school now; I did finish my homework; I have studied enough ) or main verbs ( I am happy; I did my best; I have a good teacher ), and (3) full verbs, the largest group by far, containing all the rest. A third approach differentiates an action verb from one that is stative. An action verb expresses something you can do ( run, study, sit, want ) or something that can happen ( leak, end, appear, collapse ). In contrast, a stative verb expresses an ongoing state or condition ( I know all the answers; we own our house; they fear failure ). Some verbs, like be, are in both camps: In she is careless, the verb is is stative, describing a permanent trait. In she was being careless in losing those documents, the verb was is an action verb, describing a specific act of carelessness. The same mutability is seen in verbs of the senses ( smell, taste, feel ): Mmm, smell that coffee [action]; the coffee smells wonderful [stative]. We can also distinguish the linking verb (more formally known as a copula ) from verbs that can take an object or be modified by an adverb. Linking verbs identify or describe a subject by connecting it with a noun, an adjective, or a prepositional phrase in a following complement ( she is a doctor; they were delighted; we will be at the party ). Other linking verbs, like feel, appear, smell, taste, look, become, and stay perform the same concatenating function. A number of them happen to be stative, but not all; get and act, for example, are both linking and action verbs ( the weather got warmer yesterday; she acted surprised ). As we can see, a single verb can be categorized in more than one way, depending on which type of analysis we subject it to. And finally, we can look at English verbs in terms of a number of grammatical features that are expressed by changes in their form or changes in the way sentences are constructed. These features are tense ² (such as present and past), voice (active or passive), person (first, second, or third), number (singular or plural), and mood ² (such as indicative and subjunctive)—each defined at its own Dictionary.com entry.

Derived Forms

• ˈverbless, adjective

Other Words From

• verbless adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of verb¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English verbe, from Latin verbum word

Word History and Origins

Origin of verb¹

C14: from Latin verbum a word

Example Sentences

Thus the adoption of any particular verb is a matter of taste, not a question of absolute correctness.

From The Daily Beast

The term “gestation,” for instance, is derived from the Latin verb gestāre, used to describe a mammal carrying a burden.

From The Daily Beast

As with any emergent technology where an action is involved, the brand becomes the verb.

From The Daily Beast

The verb shovel is not a figure of speech; a garden shovel actually is used to serve the oysters.

From The Daily Beast

Their Dutch nickname, putterje, comes from the verb putten, meaning to draw water from a well.

From The Daily Beast

The verb (—) in the Hebrew, when connected with the name of God in different other passages, has the same import.

From Project Gutenberg

Here ends Chaucer's portion of the translation, in the middle of an incomplete sentence, without any verb.

From Project Gutenberg

Observe that the word Christus has no verb following it; it is practically an objective case, governed by thanke in l. 168. '

From Project Gutenberg

Both in the present passage and in the Pardoner's Prologue the verb to erme is used with the same sb., viz.

From Project Gutenberg

Ethel could not help saying, "How did you find out the meaning of that word, Tom, if you didn't look out the verb?"

From Project Gutenberg