vocative
Americanadjective
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Grammar. (in certain inflected languages, as Latin) noting or pertaining to a case used to indicate that a noun refers to a person or thing being addressed.
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of, relating to, or used in calling, specifying, or addressing.
noun
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the vocative case.
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a word in the vocative, as Latin Paule “O Paul.”
adjective
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relating to, used in, or characterized by calling
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grammar denoting a case of nouns, in some inflected languages, used when the referent of the noun is being addressed
noun
Other Word Forms
- vocatively adverb
Etymology
Origin of vocative
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin vocātīvus ( cāsus ) calling (case), equivalent to vocāt ( us ) ( vocation ) + -īvus -ive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I get pedantic about the placement of the vocative comma in “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.”
From The New Yorker
And I like Mitch most when he returns fire, peppering Matt, who is young and pretty, with a barrage of snarky vocatives.
From The New Yorker
Her final vocative was expressed in an angry gurgle.
From Project Gutenberg
Lord Vanity, not feeling himself included in the last vocative, took a pinch of Rappee and gazed very fiercely at my Lady Bunbutter through the rheum and water of his ancient eyes.
From Project Gutenberg
Now, Ma!" broke in Sophia, accompanying this vocative with a tart gesture of remonstrance, "Claire doesn't know a bit better than you or I do whether he was high-toned or not.
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
