Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or relating to the assignment of names.
- adj. Grammar Of or relating to a common noun.
- n. A name or descriptive epithet.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having the character of an appellation; serving to name or mark out; serving as a distinctive denomination; denominative: as, hydrochloric is a term appellative of a certain acid.
- In grammar, common, as applied to a noun; general; denominative of a class: opposed to proper.
- n. In grammar, a common name in distinction from a proper name; a name standing for a whole class: thus, the word man is the appellative of the whole human race, fowl of all winged animals, tree of all plants of a particular class, etc.
- n. Title; appellation; nickname.
Wiktionary
- adj. grammar Of or pertaining to a common noun.
- adj. Of or pertaining to ascribing names.
- n. A common noun.
- n. An epithet.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Pertaining to a common name; serving as a distinctive denomination; denominative; naming.
- adj. (Gram.) Common, as opposed to
proper ; denominative of a class. - n. A common name, in distinction from a proper name. A common name, or
appellative , stands for a whole class, genus, or species of beings, or for universal ideas. Thus,tree is the name of all plants of a particular class;plant andvegetable are names of things that grow out of the earth. A proper name, on the other hand, stands for a single thing; as,Rome ,Washington ,Lake Erie . - n. An appellation or title; a descriptive name.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. pertaining to or dealing with or used as a common noun
- n. identifying word or words by which someone or something is called and classified or distinguished from others
- adj. inclined to or serving for the giving of names
Etymologies
- From Late Latin appellativus, from the stem appella- "to call", with the adjectival suffix -ive. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, common (noun), from Old French appelatif, from Late Latin appelātīvus, from Latin appellātus, past participle of appellāre, to call upon, entreat; see appeal. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Terms that have both are called appellative terms and should be distinguished from substance terms or natural kind terms, which have signification by imposition.”
“In older writings the term Arab is used only as an appellative, meaning "desert," or "people of the desert," or”
“In these cases we have what Jakobson calls the conative function, what other linguists refer to as the appellative, imperative or directive function.”
“As such, Hamburger is equal parts myth debunker and modernization theorizer; Pizza traces transatlantic classism, corporate globalization, and methodology-as-variety; and Pancake offers an iterative look at comfort food, cultural controversy, and appellative breadth.”
“Being side by side with homebrew frames will certain be very appellative to corporations after a young audience who is shifting TV for YouTube.”
““Ay, or in the case of a man having made the country too hot for him under his own proper appellative,” said Mr. Touchwood.”
““I am coming, — I am coming,” said the person who answered to that appellative; and then reiterating hastily,”
“As an appellative or a pejorative, it is a term that was used quite widely; in fact, we can trace the term back almost a thousand years before the time of Moses.”
“This was the ability of a univocal appellative noun to name different things.”
“Proper names, naming single items, are contrasted with appellative names, naming many.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘appellative’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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Moby Dick
Words of interest from the book Moby Dick.
arrant, obstreperously, coffer-dam, farrago, rejoinder, counterpane, hamper, commend, grego, dreadnought, psalmody, expostulation and 85 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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everythingecstatic's Words
cadence, frenetic, eloquence, paradigm, nocturne, elusive, effervescence, soliloquy, plethora, elision, aqueous, transcend and 166 more...
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Names
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Words about words
Most of these describe word patterns or relationships between words.
panvocalic, palindrome, anagram, transposition, antigram, reversal, isogram, alternade, trinade, beheadment, decapitation, apheresis and 149 more...
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word set10
superstring, nonrepudiation, sandboxed, trojan horse, bandoliers, transmutation, antiauthoritarian, connubiality, flagelliform, appellative, camphoraceous, bollixed and 61 more...
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kanenas's list
General
adnate, aleatory, anastrophe, anosmia, antiscii, aphesis, apophasis, apocope, appellative, autologous, autotrophic, botryoid and 26 more...
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Language Game
and the like
sonorant, phonestheme, glossolalia, phonaesthetics, euphony, scansion, heteroglossia, ecopoetical, dithyramb, portmanteau, monophthong, elision and 19 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for appellative.
mollusque adj., designating by name a thing of which more than one exists; related to the giving of names.
n., a common (as opposed to proper) noun; appellation. Jul 13, 2008