verbal noun

American  

[vur-buhl noun] / ˈvɜr bəl ˈnaʊn /

noun

Grammar.

1. a noun derived from a verb, especially by a process applicable to most or all verbs. In English, a verbal noun uses the -ing form, as in , or the infinitive form, as in In Latin, examples of verbal nouns include dictiō “act of speaking, utterance” (from dīcere “to say, tell, speak”) and cantus “singing, song” (from canere ”to sing“).

   Eating is fun

   To see is to believe.

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verbal noun British  

noun

1. a noun derived from a verb, such as smoking in the sentence smoking is bad for you See also gerund

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Etymology

Origin of verbal noun

First recorded in 1700–10

Example Sentences

Being a verbal noun, it is called in grammar a participle, rather than a mere adjective.

From Deductive Logic by Stock, St. George William Joseph

In the examples above, the subject of the action is a single, unmodified term, immediately preceding the verbal noun, and the construction is as good as any that could be used.

From A Foreword to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition by James, Juliet Helena Lumbard

The so-called imperfect subjunctive turns out to be a verbal noun with a preposition.

From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Brinton, Daniel Garrison

The verbal nouns and participles are nearly the same as in Mth.-Mg., the first verbal noun and the present participle being mār and mārat, as in Mg.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 7 "Bible" to "Bisectrix" by Various

Noteworthy is the desiderative compound formed by adding the root cāh, wish, to the dative of a verbal noun.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 7 "Bible" to "Bisectrix" by Various