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  1. preposition love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A word or phrase placed typically before a substantive and indicating the relation of that substantive to a verb, an adjective, or another substantive, as English at, by, with, from, and in regard to.
  2. v. To position or place in position in advance: artillery that was prepositioned at strategic points in the desert.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. (prē-pō˙-zish′ on). The act of preposing, or placing before or in front of something else.
  2. n. In grammar, something preposed; a prefixed element; a prefix; one of a body of elements (by origin, words of direction, having an adverbial character) in our family of languages often used as prefixes to verbs and verbal derivatives; especially, an indeclinable part of speech regularly placed before and governing a noun in an oblique case (or a member of the sentence having a substantive value), and showing its relation to a verb, or an adjective, or another noun, as in, of, from, to, by, etc. Abbreviated preposition
  3. n. A proposition; exposition; discourse.

Wiktionary

  1. n. grammar Any of a closed class of non-inflecting words typically employed to connect a noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word: a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word.
  2. n. obsolete A proposition; an exposition; a discourse.
  3. v. To place in a location before some other event occurs.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Gram.) A word employed to connect a noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word; a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word; -- so called because usually placed before the word with which it is phrased
  2. n. obsolete A proposition; an exposition; a discourse.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. (linguistics) the placing of one linguistic element before another (as placing a modifier before the word it modifies in a sentence or placing an affix before the base to which it is attached)
  2. n. a function word that combines with a noun or pronoun or noun phrase to form a prepositional phrase that can have an adverbial or adjectival relation to some other word

Etymologies

  1. From pre- + position (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English preposicioun, from Old French preposicion, from Latin praepositiō, praepositiōn-, a putting before, preposition (translation of Greek prothesis), from praepositus, past participle of praepōnere, to put in front : prae-, pre- + pōnere, to put. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (3)

Words with the same meaning

  1. proposition
  1. exposition
  1. discourse

hypernyms (4)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. position
  1. place
  1. closed-class word
  1. function word

same context (18)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. adverb
  2. pronoun
  3. why
  1. adjective
  2. participle
  3. gerund
  1. interjection
  2. verb
  3. infinitive
  1. nominative
  2. conjunction
  3. comma
  1. antecedent
  2. neuter
  3. adjunct
  1. adposition
  2. postposition
  3. circumposition

reverse dictionary (117)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. unless
  2. in
  3. on
  4. than
  5. to
  6. as
  7. at
  8. but
  9. minus
  10. over
  11. under
  12. upon
  13. without
  14. out of
  15. out
  16. that
  17. prep
  18. prepositional
  19. a
  20. object
  21. previous
  22. who
  23. extra-
  1. ex-
  2. huddle
  3. connective
  4. contra
  5. to hang on
  6. circum-
  7. cis-
  8. com-
  9. cata
  10. tillt
  11. mid
  12. par
  13. post
  14. pro
  15. sine
  16. syncategorematically
  17. ante-
  18. Apo
  19. bi-
  20. infra
  21. intra-
  22. relational
  23. prep.
  1. nobiliary particle
  2. noun
  3. postposition
  4. thee
  5. accusative
  6. burst
  7. to dig from
  8. oneself
  9. prepositional phrase
  10. part of speech
  11. function word
  12. strand
  13. which
  14. prepositional object
  15. prepositionally
  16. ourselves
  17. me
  18. myself
  19. weak
  20. herself
  21. her
  22. us
  23. them
  1. themselves
  2. yourself
  3. yourselves
  4. himself
  5. him
  6. itself
  7. object of a preposition
  8. objective
  9. particle
  10. revenge
  11. see
  12. shade
  13. sugar
  14. syncategorematic
  15. what
  16. work
  17. agree
  18. all
  19. come
  20. de
  21. difference
  22. extra
  23. few
  1. first-hand
  2. govern
  3. inter
  4. intransitive
  5. look
  6. move
  7. nail
  8. pass
  9. plus
  10. pray
  11. preposition
  12. secundum
  13. shut
  14. stand
  15. substantive
  16. infinitive
  17. thorough
  18. thrust
  19. ultra
  20. vice
  21. where
  22. whip
  23. wise
  1. worth
  2. wrap

tagging (84)

Words tagged ‘preposition’

  1. abaft
  2. aboard
  3. about
  4. above
  5. absent
  6. according to
  7. across
  8. afore
  9. after
  10. against
  11. ahead of
  12. along
  13. alongside
  14. amid
  15. amidst
  16. among
  1. amongst
  2. an
  3. anent
  4. apart from
  5. apropos
  6. around
  7. as
  8. aside
  9. astride
  10. at
  11. athwart
  12. atop
  13. barring
  14. before
  15. behind
  16. below
  1. beneath
  2. beside
  3. besides
  4. between
  5. betwixt
  6. beyond
  7. but
  8. by
  9. concerning
  10. considering
  11. despite
  12. down
  13. during
  14. except
  15. excepting
  16. excluding
  1. following
  2. for
  3. from
  4. in
  5. into
  6. like
  7. minus
  8. near
  9. of
  10. off
  11. on
  12. onto
  13. opposite
  14. outside
  15. over
  16. per
  1. regarding
  2. round
  3. save
  4. since
  5. than
  6. through
  7. to
  8. toward
  9. towards
  10. under
  11. underneath
  12. unless
  13. until
  14. up
  15. upon
  16. versus
  1. via
  2. with
  3. within
  4. without

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Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘preposition’.

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Comments

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  • oroboros Exhausted after a long day of insisting that one must never end a sentence with a preposition, the English teacher took a book about Australia up to her daughter's bedroom.

    "Mommy," said the girl, "what did you bring that book I didn't want to be read to out of about Down Under up for?"

    (via futilitycloset.com) Jul 28, 2009

  • bilby If you want to see 'TWO ADJECTIVE NOUNS VERBING ADVERBLY PREPOSITION EACH OTHER, peek here. Feb 3, 2009

  • sionnach A snobbish East Coast English Professor is visiting a colleague at a rural university in the Midwest. The colleague takes him to the local cafe for breakfast and introduces him to a few locals she's gotten to know over the years, including a farmer.

    Farmer: Glad to meet you. Where do you come from?

    Professor: It is improper to end a sentence with a preposition.

    Farmer: I'm very sorry. Where do you come from, a**hole? Nov 18, 2008

  • sionnach In prison for his part in the infamous Loeb and Leopold murder case, Richard Loeb was murdered by another prisoner after having allegedly made sexual advances on him.

    The Chicago Daily News reported the incident as follows: "Richard Loeb, despite his erudition, today ended his sentence with a proposition." Nov 18, 2008

  • chained_bear Hives give me hives. Oct 4, 2007

  • reesetee This page gives me hives. Oct 4, 2007

  • skipvia What did you bring that book I did not want to be read to out of up for? Oct 4, 2007

  • slumry The Naughty Preposition
    --Morris Bishop

    I lately lost a preposition:
    It hid, I thought, beneath my chair.
    And angrily I cried: "Perdition!
    Up from out of in under there!

    Correctness is my vade mecum,
    And straggling phrases I abhor;
    And yet I wondered: "What should he come
    Up from out of in under for?" Jul 20, 2007

  • seanahan This rule is something up with which we should not put. Jan 25, 2007

  • uselessness A preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with. Jan 25, 2007

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‘preposition’ has been looked up 3206 times, loved by 2 people, added to 20 lists, commented on 10 times, and has a Scrabble score of 15.