verbless









verbless


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.

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
n.

late 14c., from Old French verbe “part of speech that expresses action or being,” from Latin verbum “verb,” originally “a word,” from PIE root *were- (cf. Avestan urvata- “command;” Sanskrit vrata- “command, vow;” Greek rhetor “public speaker,” rhetra “agreement, covenant,” eirein “to speak, say;” Hittite weriga- “call, summon;” Lithuanian vardas “name;” Gothic waurd, Old English word “word”).

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.)

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