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adverb - 5 dictionary results

ad⋅verb

  [ad-vurb]
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–noun Grammar.
any member of a class of words that in many languages are distinguished in form, as partly in English by the ending -ly, or by functioning as modifiers of verbs or clauses, and in some languages, as Latin and English, also as modifiers of adjectives or other adverbs or adverbial phrases, as very, well, quickly. Adverbs typically express some relation of place, time, manner, attendant circumstance, degree, cause, inference, result, condition, exception, concession, purpose, or means.
Origin:
1520–30; < L adverbium, equiv. to ad- ad- + verb(um) word, verb + -ium -ium; calque of Gk epírrhēma

Related forms:
ad⋅verb⋅less, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ad·verb   (ād'vûrb)   
n.   Abbr. adv.
  1. The part of speech that modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb.
  2. Any of the words belonging to this part of speech, such as so, very, and rapidly.

[Middle English adverbe, from Old French, from Latin adverbium (translation of Greek epirrhēma) : ad-, in relation to; see ad- + verbum, word, verb; see wer-5 in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Adverb

Ad"verb\, n. [L. adverbium; ad + verbum word, verb: cf. F. adverbe.] (Gram.) A word used to modify the sense of a verb, participle, adjective, or other adverb, and usually placed near it; as, he writes well; paper extremely white.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : adverb
Spanish: adverbio,
German: das Adverb,
Japanese: 副詞
More Translations »

adverb

A part of speech that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs usually answer such questions as “How?” “Where?” “When?” or “To what degree?” The following italicized words are adverbs: “He ran well”; “She ran very well”; “The mayor is highly capable.”

Note: Adverbs are often formed by adding -ly to an adjective, as in truly or deeply.
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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adverb 
c.1425, from L. adverbium "adverb," lit. "that which is added to a verb," from ad- "to" + verbum "verb, word" (see verb). Coined by Flavius Sosipater Charisius to transl. Gk. epirrhema "adverb," from epi- "upon, on" + rhema "verb."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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