grammar
the study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed; morphology and syntax.
these features or constructions themselves: English grammar.
an account of these features; a set of rules accounting for these constructions: a grammar of English.
Generative Grammar. a device, as a body of rules, whose output is all of the sentences that are permissible in a given language, while excluding all those that are not permissible.
knowledge or usage of the preferred or prescribed forms in speaking or writing: She said his grammar was terrible.
the elements of any science, art, or subject.
a book treating such elements.
Origin of grammar
1Other words from grammar
- gram·mar·less, adjective
Words that may be confused with grammar
- grammar , grandma, grandmother
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use grammar in a sentence
Our languages are what make us fully human—no other creature has anything like our rich and complex vocabularies and grammars.
One teacher has re-arranged Series in Foreign Grammars in such a manner that he finds a natural suggestiveness between the words.
Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)Our grammars vainly pretend that we can "close our ears" to these speeches; unfortunately there is no such thing.
Urania | Camille FlammarionWhere may be seen his short grammars for all these tongues, after the same way.
No less than twenty of these have been traced, and of fourteen of them there are already grammars and dictionaries.
They have been driven also to Spanish America, and we find Spanish word-books and grammars written for them.
British Dictionary definitions for grammar
/ (ˈɡræmə) /
the branch of linguistics that deals with syntax and morphology, sometimes also phonology and semantics
the abstract system of rules in terms of which a person's mastery of his native language can be explained
a systematic description of the grammatical facts of a language
a book containing an account of the grammatical facts of a language or recommendations as to rules for the proper use of a language
the use of language with regard to its correctness or social propriety, esp in syntax: the teacher told him to watch his grammar
(as modifier): a grammar book
the elementary principles of a science or art: the grammar of drawing
Origin of grammar
1Derived forms of grammar
- grammarless, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for grammar
The rules for standard use of words. A grammar is also a system for classifying and analyzing the elements of language.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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