Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The part of speech that modifies a noun or other substantive by limiting, qualifying, or specifying and distinguished in English morphologically by one of several suffixes, such as -able, -ous, -er, and -est, or syntactically by position directly preceding a noun or nominal phrase.
- n. Any of the words belonging to this part of speech, such as white in the phrase a white house.
- adj. Adjectival: an adjective clause.
- adj. Law Prescriptive; remedial: adjective law.
- adj. Not standing alone; derivative or dependent.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Naming or forming an adjunct to a noun: as, an adjective name. Pertaining to an adjective: as, the adjective use of a noun. Added or adjected; additional.
- n. In grammar, a word used to qualify, limit, or define a noun, or a word or phrase which has the value of a noun; a part of speech expressing quality or condition as belonging to something: thus, whiteness is the name of a quality, and is a noun; white means possessing whiteness, and so is an adjective. The adjective is used attributively, appositively, or predicatively: thus, attributively in “a wise ruler”; appositively, in “a ruler wise and good”; predicatively, in “the ruler is wise.” Commonly abbreviated to
a . or adjective - n. A dependant or an accessory; a secondary or subsidiary part.
- To make an adjective of; form into an adjective; give the character of an adjective to.
Wiktionary
- adj. Incapable of independent function.
- adj. Adjectival; pertaining to or functioning as an adjective.
- adj. Applying to methods of enforcement and rules of procedure.
- adj. Of a dye that needs the use of a mordant to be made fast to that which is being dyed.
- n. A word that modifies a noun or describes a noun’s referent.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Added to a substantive as an attribute; of the nature of an adjunct.
- adj. Not standing by itself; dependent.
- adj. Relating to procedure.
- n. A word used with a noun, or substantive, to express a quality of the thing named, or something attributed to it, or to limit or define it, or to specify or describe a thing, as distinct from something else. Thus, in phrase, “a wise ruler,”
wise is the adjective, expressing a property ofruler . - n. A dependent; an accessory.
- v. To make an adjective of; to form or change into an adjective.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a word that expresses an attribute of something
- n. the word class that qualifies nouns
- adj. of or relating to or functioning as an adjective
- adj. relating to court practice and procedure as opposed to the principles of law
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French adjectif, from Late Latin adiectīvus, from adiectus, past participle of adicere, to add to : ad-, ad- + iacere, to throw; see yē- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“An adjective may, in general, be distinguished from an _adverb_ by this rule: when a word qualifies a _noun_ or _pronoun_, it is an adjective, but when it qualifies a _verb, participle, adjective_, or _adverb_, it is an adverb.”
“Such an adjective is called an _adjective of three endings_.”
“Find them, and give the reason.] [Footnote 2: When a noun is modified by both a genitive and an adjective, a favorite order of words is _adjective, genitive, noun_.] [Footnote 3: A modifying genitive often stands between a preposition and its object.] *****”
“A fourth kind of adjective is called by the grammarians an ADVERB; which has generally been formed from the first kind of adjectives, as these were frequently formed from correspondent substantives; or it has been formed from the third kind of adjectives, called participles; and this is effected in both cases by the addition of the syllable ly, as wisely, charmingly.”
“My favorite is the adjective taken from the Old English word for “gore,” dreor.”
“Pandemic, an adjective from the Greek pandemos, "of all the people," becomes a noun to mean "the outbreak of a disease spreading over a large geographic area," now construed as "worldwide.”
“In fact, Wikipedia suggests that it is 'a descendant of the Latin adjective niger, meaning "black"', but that's a technicality.”
“Otherwise an adjective is attached, as in “temporary”.”
“Coming up with a new and different adjective is just too much for her.”
“Their profitability advantages will be offset by weak economic growth, so the adjective is fine rather than something more glowing.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘adjective’.
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Language
word, sentence, novel, book, novella, vignette, memoir, anthology, paragraph, stanza, poem, haiku and 123 more...
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Word Words
Words that describe other words
adverb, verb, noun, adjective, pronoun, Synonym, antonym, phrase, dictionary, grammar, word, passage and 19 more...
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Chit Chat
Conversations that are shorter than those featured in my conversations list.
props, frass, narwhal, preggers, mu, hype, heterotopia, sans serif, cow orker, snicker-snack, modality road, boolean poetry and 77 more...
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Linguistic terminology
phonics, phonology, morphology, morphemes, metathesis, allomorphs, phonemes, linguistics, vowel, consonant, noun, pronoun and 6 more...

reesetee Oh, not much. Had another total linguistic breakdown and went native in the Pribilofs. Cavorted with a few seals.
Great birdwatching, though. :-) Oct 20, 2008
mollusque So what did you do on vacation this year, reesetee? Oct 18, 2008
reesetee Damn. I hate it when that happens. Aug 29, 2007
uselessness It was on Wikipedia. Aug 29, 2007
reesetee How did you know what I did on my vacation? Aug 29, 2007
uselessness Dude, it's a real word. We just speak a screwy language. You'll adjust, sooner or later. Or have a total linguistic breakdown and go hermit on an unpopulated island in the south seas, drawing hieroglyphs to yourself amidst the fiddler crabs. Aug 29, 2007
reesetee That just looks screwy. Nounish, but screwy. Aug 29, 2007
uselessness Oh well in that case there's always nounal. :-P Aug 29, 2007
reesetee Oh, I suppose. But it just doesn't have the savoir-faire, the...nounishness, if you will, of "noun." ;-P Aug 29, 2007
uselessness How about nominal? Aug 29, 2007
reesetee Hmm. Is there an adjectival form of "noun"? Aug 29, 2007
seanahan If you think adjective is fun to say, try adjectival, the adjective form of adjective. Aug 28, 2007
oroboros “The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech.�?
– Clifton Fadiman (1902-1999) Aug 28, 2007
uselessness Funny that the word adjective is a noun... Same with all the other parts of speech, but adjective is the most fun to say. Except for maybe gerund.
I just love the irony that arises when writing, to discover that you are in need of a "good" adjective, no wait, a "better" adjective, or perhaps an "empathic, melodious, soulful" adjective. And then you decide on moist. Feb 26, 2007