Appendix:Glossary

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary

A glossary of terms used in the body of this dictionary. See also Wiktionary:Glossary, which contains
terms used elsewhere in the Wiktionary community.
Table of Contents: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A
a.
"Ante" (Latin for "before"). Hence, a quotation from "a. 1924" is a quotation from no later than 1923.
abbreviation
A shortened form of a word, such as an initialism, acronym, or many terms ending in a period.
ablative case
A case that indicates separation, or moving away from something. It is used alone or with certain
prepositions. For example, if English had a fully productive case system that included the ablative
case, then in the phrase came from the city, either "the city" or "from the city" would likely be in the
ablative. In some languages, such as Latin, this case has acquired many other uses and does not
strictly indicate separation anymore.
ablaut
In Proto-Indo-European, or any of its descendants (the Indo-European languages), a system of vowel
alternation in which the vowels that are used in various parts of the word can change depending on
meaning. The system is used for purposes of inflection and word derivation. In the Germanic
languages, it forms the basis of the strong verbs.
abstract verb
In the Slavic languages, a verb of motion whose motion is multidirectional (as opposed to
unidirectional) or indirect, or whose action is repeated or in a series (iterative). Also called an
indeterminate verb. The opposite type of verb, which expresses a single, completed action, is termed a
concrete verb (or a determinate verb). Motion verbs in the Slavic languages come in abstract/concrete
lexical pairs, e.g. Russian (xodt, to go (abstract)) vs. (idt, to go (concrete)),
(bgat, to run (abstract)) vs. (bet, to run (concrete)), (nost, to
carry (abstract)) vs. (nest, to carry (concrete)). English does not make this distinction. For
example, "I went to the post office" could be abstract (if I went there and came back, i.e.
multidirectional) or concrete (if I am there now, i.e. unidirectional), and different Slavic verbs would
be used to translate "went" in these two circumstances. Abstract verbs are always imperfective in
aspect, even with prefixes that are normally associated with the perfective aspect.
accusative case, acc.
A case that is usually used as the direct object of a verb. For example, if English had a fully productive
case system, then ball in "The man threw the ball" would most likely be in the accusative.
acronym
An abbreviation that is pronounced as the word it would spell, such as NATO.

active voice
the voice verb form in which the subject is the person or thing doing the action, cf passive voice. (see
also Voice (grammar) on Wikipedia.) eg: The boy kicked the ball.
AD
Anno Domini. Year-numbering system equivalent to CE.
adjective
A word like big or childish that usually serves to modify a noun.
adverb
A word like very, wickedly or often that usually serves to modify an adjective, verb, or other adverb.
adverbial
Relating to an adverb. For example, an adverbial participle is a participle that functions like an adverb
in a sentence.
agent noun
A noun that denotes an agent who does the action denoted by the verb from which the noun is derived,
such as "cutter" derived from "to cut".
AHD
The American Heritage Dictionary. For historical reasons, this abbreviation is sometimes used here to
identify a respelled pronunciation that is given in enPR form.
ambitransitive verb
Either transitive or intransitive. For instance, eat and read optionally take a direct object: "I eat daily",
"She likes to read" (both intransitive), "Read this book", "I do not eat meat" (both transitive). Note:
Although ergative verbs are ambitransitive, a single definition could only refer to an unergative verb.
animate
Having a referent that includes a human or animal. Many languages (such as the Slavic languages)
classify nouns based on animacy, using different inflections or words with animate and inanimate
nouns.
aphetic
A word form derived by removing an initial unstressed sound, like scarp from escarp.
apocopic
A word form in which the word is lacking the final sound or syllable. Occuring in Italian, Spanish and
other languages.
archaic
No longer in general use, but still found in some contemporary texts that aim for an antique style, like
historical novels or Bible translations. For example, thee and thou are archaic pronouns, having been
completely superseded by you. Archaic is a stronger term than dated, but not as strong as obsolete. See
Wiktionary:Obsolete and archaic terms.
article
A type of determiner that is used as a grammatical indicator in some languages, and is usually central
to the grammar and syntax of that language. In English, the articles are the definite article the, and the
indefinite articles a and an. Some languages may have more articles, such as the French partitive
articles du, de la and des, while many languages lack articles altogether.
aspect

A property of a verb form indicating the nature of an action as perfective (complete) or imperfective
(incomplete or continuing).
aspirated h
In French, an initial <h> that is treated as a consonant; that is to say, liaison and elision are not
permitted at the beginning of a word with an aspirated h.
attributive
A noun or adjective (or phrase), that names a real object with the attributes of another real object. This
is in contrast to an substantive noun or adjective, which names a real object that is the actual
substance named by the noun or adjective. Often used specifically to refer to nouns modifying other
nouns, such as wagon in wagon wheel or chicken in chicken soup. Some languages, e.g. the Slavic
languages, have special adjectives that serve this function, having the meaning "related to X" for a
noun X. An example of this type of adjective is (kurnyj, related to chickens), used for
example in (kurnyj buln, chicken soup). Generally, adjectives of this sort
cannot be qualified by more, less or very.
augment
In some Indo-European languages, a prefixed vowel (usually e-; or in modern Greek, a- in
Sanskrit) indicating a past tense in a verb.
auxiliary verb or auxiliary
A verb that is not used alone, but always accompanies another verb in a clause. It is used to indicate
distinctions in tense, mood, voice, aspect or other grammatical nuances. English examples are can,
will, have, be.
avoidance term
A word standardly used to replace a taboo word.

B
back-formation
A term formed by removing an apparent or real prefix or suffix from an older term; for example, the
noun pea arose because the final /z/ sound in pease sounded like a plural suffix. Similarly, the verb
edit is a back-formation from the earlier noun editor. Not to be confused with clipping, which just
shortens a word without changing meaning or part of speech.
BC
Before Christ. Year-numbering system equivalent to BCE.
BCE
Before the Common Era. Year-numbering system equivalent to BC. To automatically switch most
dates to use the "BC"/"AD" style, visit WT:Per-browser preferences.
blend
A word or name that starts with the start of one word and ends with the end of another, such as smog
(from smoke and fog) or Wiktionary (from wiki and dictionary). Many blends are portmanteaus.
borrowing, borrowed
See loanword.
bowdlerization
The removal, from a text, of words or phrases that are considered offensive or vulgar.

C
c., ca.
"Circa" ("about"). Hence, a quotation from "c. 1924" or "ca. 1924" is a quotation from approximately
1924.
c
"Of common gender". Some languages have a distinct common gender that combines masculine and
feminine but is distinguished from neuter. In other languages, a "noun of common gender" is epicene;
that is, it is a pair of nouns, one masculine and one feminine, that are identical in form, and that have
the same sense except that one refers to men and the other to women.
calque
A borrowing by word-for-word translation: a loan translation.
case
One of the forms of a noun, used to indicate its function in the phrase or sentence. Examples include:
nominative, accusative, genitive, dative.
cat.
Abbreviation for category.
Without the period, the ISO 639-3 code for the Catalan language.
category
A collection of entries, used to categorize or group entries of words that are similar in syntax (for
example, English plural nouns) or in sense (for example, English words pertaining to sports); see
Wiktionary:Categorization.
CE
Common Era. Year-numbering system equivalent to AD. To automatically switch most dates to use
the "BC"/"AD" style, visit WT:Per-browser preferences.
cf.
"Confer"; "see"; "compare" often used to indicate a word with similar, or opposite meaning.
CJK, CJKV
Chinese, Japanese, Korean (and Vietnamese); CJK characters.
classifier
See counter.
clipping
A shortening of a word, without changing meaning or part of speech. Not to be confused with backformation, which changes meaning.
Clipping (morphology) on Wikipedia.
clitic
A word that attaches to a phrase and cannot be used on its own, such as English -'s. Many languages
have clitic pronouns, which may be contrasted with emphatic or strong pronouns; for example,
English 'em is a clitic version of them, and always attaches to the preceding word (usually the verb).
colloquial
Used primarily in casual conversation or informal writing and not in more formal written works,
speeches, and discourse. Compare the similar tag informal. Do not confuse with slang or

nonstandard.
Note: It is a common misconception that colloquial somehow denotes "location" or a word being
"regional". This is not the case; the word root for colloquial is related to locution, not location.
comparable
(of an adjective or adverb) able to be compared, having comparative and superlative forms that end in
-er and -est (adjectives only), or in conjunction with the words more or most, or in some cases further
or furthest. Examples: big, bigger, and biggest; talented, more talented, and most talented; upstairs,
further upstairs, and furthest upstairs. Some adjectives are truly uncomparable, such as daily,
additional, and else. Many other adjectives, such as unique, existential, and bearable are generally
considered uncomparable, but controversially so, where examples can be readily cited of something
being "more bearable" or "most perfect".
comparative
An inflection, or different form, of a comparable adjective showing a relative quality, usually
denoting "to a greater extent" but not "to the ultimate extent" (see also superlative and degrees of
comparison). In English, the comparative form is usually formed by appending -er, or using the word
more. For example, the comparative of hard is "harder"; of difficult, "more difficult".
compound
A word or name that combines two or more words without altering them, such as dishcloth (from dish
and cloth) or keyboard (from key and board). Compound terms are indicated in etymologies using
{{compound}}; see also WT:ETY#Compound.
concrete verb
In the Slavic languages, a verb of motion whose motion is unidirectional and expresses a single,
completed action. Opposed to abstract verbs, whose motion is multidirectional or indirect, or whose
action is repeated or in a series (iterative). Also called a determinate verb. See abstract verb for more
discussion.
conditional mood
The mood of a verb used to signify that something is contingent upon the outcome of something else.
The conditional mood in English is normally introduced by the word would, as in If I were rich, I
would be happy.
conjugation
The inflection of verbs. See also declension.
construct state
In some languages, notably the Semitic languages, a word form, usually of nouns but in some cases of
adjectives, modifying a noun in a genitive construction. The construct state of a noun X can usually be
translated to English as X of.
contamination
Influence of one term on the development of another term whereby they come to have similar
meanings or similar sound, conflation.
contraction
A shortened word or phrase, sometimes with the missing letter(s) represented by an apostrophe (eg do
not don't).
coordinate term
A term that is a different type of the same hypernym. Car and sled are coordinate terms to each other,
both being hyponyms of a shared hypernym vehicle. Although the term can be applied broadly, eg, car
and asteroid are both things, such usage is not useful in Wiktionary.

countable, countable noun, count noun

Describes a noun which can be freely used with the indefinite article (a or an in English) and with
numbers, and which therefore has a plural form. Antonym: uncountable, or mass noun.
counter
In linguistics, counters, measure words or classifiers are words that are used in combination with a
numeral to indicate an amount of something represented by some noun. They denote a unit or
measurement and are used with mass nouns, and in some cases also with count nouns.

D
dated
Formerly in common use, and still in occasional use, but now unfashionable; for example, wireless in
the sense of "broadcast radio tuner", groovy, and gay in the sense of "bright" or "happy" are all dated.
Dated is not as strong as archaic or obsolete. See Wiktionary:Obsolete and archaic terms.
dative case, dat.
"Dative". A case that is usually used as the indirect object of a verb. For example, if English had a
fully productive case system, then him in "She gave him the ball" would most likely be in the dative.
declension
The inflection of nouns and words like them, or used together with them (i.e. nominals). See also
conjugation.
defective
Normally would be expected to have a full set of inflected forms, but some of the inflections do not
exist or are never used. English examples are the defective verbs can and shall, which do not have
infinitive forms (there is no to can or to shall).
defective spelling
In languages with matres lectionis (consonant letters representing vowels), the form including no
additional ones, this may still include a mater lectionis.
definite
refers to forms of words that present something as known, identified, or immediately identifiable; in
English, this is the basic meaning of the article the; in some languages, this is a nominal or adjectival
inflection.
degrees of comparison
Inflections of adjectives and adverbs which allow comparisons. English has three degrees of
comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. Some other languages have other degrees, eg:
comparative superlative, relative superlative, elative.
denominal
Derived from a noun.
dependent
(In Greek and in the Gaelic languages) A verb form which is not used independently but preceded by a
particle to form the negative or a tense form.
deponent
(In Greek, Latin and some Gaelic languages) A verb with an active meaning which conjugates in a
passive manner.

derived terms
A post-POS heading listing terms in the same language that are morphological derivatives.
determinate verb
In the Slavic languages, another term for concrete verb.
determiner
A noun modifier that expresses the in-context reference or quantity of a noun or noun phrase.
Determiners are often considered adjectives, but in fact are not quite the same; for example, in
English, big is an adjective, so the big car is grammatical while *He saw big car is not, but some
is a determiner, so *the some car is not grammatical while He saw some car is. In English,
adjectives can sometimes stand alone without a noun, while determiners nearly always can (contrast
*He saw big with He saw some), such that they are sometimes considered pronouns as well as
adjectives.
dialectal
1. Of or relating to a dialect.
2. Not linguistically standard.
diminutive
A word form expressing smallness, youth, endearment, unimportance, or contempt.
ditransitive verb
(of a verb) taking two objects, such as give in Give me the ball (where me is an indirect object and
the ball is a direct object). Compare intransitive verb and transitive verb.
dual, dual number
A grammatical number that indicates exactly two items or individuals. Usually contrasts with singular
and plural.

E
ed.
"Editor" (or sometimes "edition"). This abbreviation is often used in attributing quotations; the editor
of a compilation is generally the individual in charge of selecting what works to include.
elative
In Semitic languages, a stage of gradation that can be used both for a superlative and comparative (see
also degrees of comparison).
elative case
A case which expresses "moving out of".
elongated
With letters added for emphasis, like "stoooop!" Usually this is nonstandard writing, but in some cases
like interjections, this is normal: "awwwww!", "shhhh!"
emphatic
Taking particular stress. English's reflexive pronouns double as emphatic ones, as in "I myself have
not seen it" (where "myself" emphasizes the role of the speaker); some other languages (such as
Greek) have emphatic pronouns that they distinguish from weak or clitic pronouns.
enclisis

The phonetic joining of a word with the preceding word. In modern Greek this may result in an extra
stress on the first word.
enPR
Wiktionary's English Phonemic Representation system. Details in the English pronunciation key.
ergative verb
Optionally taking a direct object that is semantically equivalent to the subject in the intransitive
construction. For example, the same thing happens to the window in "The window broke" (subject) as
in "I broke the window" (direct object), so break is an ergative verb.
ergative case
A case used in some languages, which marks the subject of a transitive verb, but not the subject of an
intransitive verb.
euphemism
A term that is less vulgar or less offensive than the one it replaces.
eye dialect
A nonstandard spelling used to show a speaker's pronunciation, especially when it is a pronunciation
the writer considers dialectal or nonstandard. Some distinguish eye dialect from pronunciation
respelling, and separate templates exist (Template:eye dialect of, Template:pronunciation spelling.)
excessive spelling
In languages with matres lectionis (consonant letters representing vowels) a form including one or
more additional ones. For example in Hebrew ( red) of , an added ( vav) indicating
/o/.

F
f
"Feminine"; said of a word belonging to the feminine gender, which is usually contrasted with the
masculine gender, and also often with a neuter gender.
fpl
"Feminine plural"; of feminine gender and plural number.
familiar
Describes a context where those conversing, through speech or written word, are well acquainted with
one another and in casual situations often use more informal or colloquial terms to communicate.
figurative
Not literal. Of words in metaphorical usage, such as 'pig' of a greedy person, or metonymic, as 'crown'
to mean the monarchy.
first person, 1st person
A grammatical person that indicates the speaker him/her/itself, or a group to which the speaker
belongs. Examples are the English pronouns I and we.
/// form(s)
Denoting forms of a word that are grouped together because of an important shared characteristic
which is not shared by forms in the other group(s). Spellings may be grouped in various ways: simply
by surface features (such as scion), by the different pronunciations they represent (as for sny2), by
inflexional differences (as for finocchio), by dialectical differences (as for traveler's diarrhea), or for a

variety of etymological (e.g. thrombendarteriectomy) or other reasons.

formal
Describes a context where word choice and syntax are primarily limited to those terms and
constructions that are accepted by academia or official institutions as most appropriate and correct.
Informal terms, frequently those that originate through casual speech (colloquial), are often
inappropriate in formal contexts. Examples with varying degrees of formality include: official or legal
documents, formal essays, job interviews, etc.
future tense
The tense of a verb used to refer to an event, transaction or occurrence that has not yet happened, is
expected to happen in the future, or might never happen. An English example is will go in I will go
home tomorrow.

G
gender
A way of classifying nouns in some languages. In such languages, each noun has a specific gender
(often determined by its meaning and/or form), and other words (especially adjectives and pronouns)
will often change form to agree with the noun's gender. See also noun class.
genitive case
A case that expresses possession or relation, equivalent to the English of.
gerund
Any of various non-finite verb forms in various languages. In English, a "gerund" is a verb in its -ing
form when used in a way that resembles the use of a noun.

H
historical
Describing an object or concept which is no longer extant or current; for example, Czechoslovakia,
stomacher, or phlogiston. Distinguish: a historical term is still in use but refers to a thing which no
longer exists; an obsolete term is no longer in use, while the thing it once referred to may or may not
exist.
holonym
A term describing something that is formed by other smaller, somehow combined or related things.
For example, tree is a holonym of leaf; body is a holonym of arm; Canada is a holonym of Alberta
etc. The opposite of holonym, which describes things that are part of a whole, is called meronym.
hot word
A newly coined term, or newly adopted sense of an existing term, that has become very popular in a
short time. It is kept provisionally as it is likely to remain in usage, even though it fails the "spanning
at least one year" requirement of the Criteria For Inclusion on Wiktionary.
hypercorrect
Incorrect because of the misapplication of a standard rule; for example, octopi used as the plural form
of octopus is hypercorrect because -us -i is the rule for forming plurals of originally-masculine
nouns of the Latin second declension, whereas octopus actually derives from Ancient Greek, and to be
consistent with its etymology has the plural form octopodes.
hyperforeign

Incorrectly applying foreign reading rules, such as in pronouncing the "j" in Taj Mahal as [] rather
than [d], or dropping the [t] in claret.
hypernym or hyperonym
A term indicating a category another term is part of. For example, animal is a hypernym of bird,
which is in turn a hypernym of eagle. The opposite of hypernym, which indicates terms pertaining to a
category, is hyponym.
hyphenation
The splitting of a word across a line boundary, with a hyphen at the end of the first part. For example,
the hyphenation of hyphenation is given as "hyphenation" meaning that it is split across a line break
as hy-phenation or as hyphen-ation.
hyponym
A specific term within a category described by another term. For instance, alternative rock is a
hyponym of rock, which in turn is a hyponym of music. The opposite of hyponym, which describes
larger categories, is hypernym.

I
idiom
A phrase whose meaning is unapparent or unobvious from the individual words that make it up, such
as beat around the bush (avoid uncomfortable topic), come a cropper (suffer misfortune), or pay
through the nose (pay an unusually large amount). Idioms are often, but not always set phrases, and
are usually distinct from proverbs. See also Appendix:Glossary of idioms.
idiomatic
Pertaining or conforming to the mode of expression characteristic of a language. Idioms, collocations
and modal verbs are examples of idiomatic language.
imperfect
The imperfective past tense of a verb, indicating that the action described happened repeatedly,
habitually or continuously.
imperative mood
The mood of a verb expressing an order or command. An English example is the command go!.
imperfective
An aspect of the verb which denotes an action or condition that does not have a fixed temporal
boundary, but is habitual, unfinished, continuous, repetitive or in progress. Common in Slavic
languages such as Russian. Contrast perfective. (see Imperfective aspect on Wikipedia.)
imperfective past
A verb form of imperfective aspect and past tense, which is used to describe an action or event which
was happening habitually, continuously or repeatedly in the past, as in Tom was painting the fence
or Tom used to paint the fence.
impersonal
A lack of grammatical person altogether, or an indefinite/undefined person. An example is the English
pronoun one.
impersonal verb
A verb that cannot take a subject, or takes a third-person subject pronoun (e.g. it) without an
antecedent. The term weather verb is also sometimes used in some texts, since such verbs of weather

(e.g. rain) are impersonal in many languages.

inanimate
Having a referent that does not include a human or animal. Many languages (such as the Slavic
languages) classify nouns based on animacy, using different inflections or words with animate and
inanimate nouns. For verbs, this indicates that they are usually applied only to inanimate objects or
concepts, and rarely used in the first or second persons.
indeclinable, undeclinable, invariable or invariant
In languages with inflection, lacking distinct inflected forms when they would be expected to exist.
Indeclinable words have the same form in all cases. For example, the English noun sheep is invariable
because its plural is also sheep. Acronyms and loanwords are often indeclinable in many languages.
indefinite
refers to forms of words that present something as not yet identified or not immediately identifiable; in
English, this is the basic meaning of the article a; in some languages, this is a nominal or adjectival
inflection.
indeterminate verb
In the Slavic languages, another term for abstract verb.
indicative mood
The mood of a verb used in ordinary factual or objective statements.
infix
A morpheme or affix inserted inside a word.
infinitive
A non-finite verb form considered neutral with respect to inflection; depending on language variously
found used with auxiliary verbs, in subordinate clauses, or acting as a gerund, and often as the
dictionary form. In English, the infinitive is formed with the word to, e.g. to read.
informal
Denotes spoken or written words that are used primarily in a familiar, or casual, context, where a
clear, formal equivalent often exists that is employed in its place in formal contexts. Compare similar
tag colloquial.
inflection
The change in form of a word to represent various grammatical categories, such as tense (e.g. past
tense, present tense, future tense) or number (e.g. singular, plural). For example, the verb run may be
inflected to produce runs, ran, and running. In highly inflected languages, such as Latin, there will be
many more forms. Two major types of inflection are conjugation (inflection of verbs) and declension
(inflection of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns).
initialism
An abbreviation that is formed from the initial letters of a sequence of words. Initialisms that are
pronounced as words, such as UNICEF, are usually called acronyms, so the term initialism is
generally only used for those that are pronounced letter by letter, such as USA.
instrumental case, ins.
A case used to express means or agencyand is generally indicated in English by "by" or "with" with
the objective.
interjection

intransitive verb
Of a verb: not taking a direct object; not transitive. For example, the verb listen does not usually take a
direct object; one cannot say *"I listened the ball".
Of an adposition (such as a preposition), or of an adverb: not having a nominal complement. For
example, using the following prepositions or adverbs without a complement (here in parentheses):
down (the stairs), under (the bridge), inside (the building), aboard (the ship), underneath (the table),
here, there, abroad, downtown, afterwards,
invariable
see: indeclinable
invariant
see: indeclinable
iotation
A specific occurrence of palatalization that occurred in the Proto-Slavic language, in which a
consonant combined with the palatal approximant /j/ to form a palatalized consonant. Also, any
similar process occurring in a later Slavic language or elsewhere. For example, under certain
circumstances in Russian, underlying s; z; t; d; k; g are iotated to ; ; or ; ; ; respectively
/ or //; //; /t
/; // respectively). See
(pronounced //; //; /t
Appendix:Russian_verbs#Slavic iotation for the full iotation rules in Russian. Other Slavic languages
behave similarly.
IPA
The International Phonetic Alphabet; a standardized system for transcribing the sounds in any spoken
language.
irb
The system of nominal and adjectival case endings of Qur'nic, Classical, and Modern Standard

Arabic, in Arabic: ( irbun). Also called desinential inflection. See Irab on Wikipedia.
irregular
Not following the usual rules of inflection; for example, the plural of English man is men, which is
irregular; the regularly formed plural would have been *mans.

J
jussive mood
In certain languages (e.g. Hebrew, Arabic and Esperanto), a mood of a verb used to indicate a
command, permission or agreement with a request (distinct from the imperative).

K
Katharevousa
The classically based artificial Greek language created at the start of Greece's independence from the
Ottoman Empire. It was used for all formal and official purposes until 1976. In Wiktionary,
Katharevousa terms are entered under (modern) Greek.

L
lemma

The headword or citation form of an inflected word, especially the form found in a bilingual
dictionary. For verbs this is usually the infinitive or the present tense first person singular, for nouns it
is usually the nominative singular. (In linguistics, the word is sometimes used in a sense that includes
this definition plus all the inflections; compare lexeme). The plural of lemma is traditionally lemmata,
but the form lemmas exists as well.
lexeme
The abstract "word" underlying a set of inflections; for example, gives and given belong to the same
lexeme, which is usually identified by its lemma form give. See also: (1) Wikipedia's article on
lexemes, (2) Wiktionary:Languages with more than one grammatical gender, (3) conjugation and (4)
declension.
literally
Exactly as stated; read or understood without additional interpretation; not figurative or metaphorical.
loanword (also loan or borrowing)
A word that was adopted (borrowed) from another language, rather than formed within the language
or inherited from a more ancient form of the same language. Loanwords may still be recognisably
foreign (having non-native spelling or unusual pronunciation), or have become completely assimilated
into the language (no longer perceived as foreign). For example, in English, schadenfreude is still
recognisably German, while cellar is fully assimilated and no longer recognisably Latin (from
cellrium).
litotes
(from Ancient Greek ) better known as an understatement in English, is a rhetorical figure that
consists of saying less to mean more. E.g.: he is not very clever instead of he is a stupid idiot ; she's
not very pretty instead of she's ugly, etc. Not to be confused with euphemism, although litotes can be
used for the purpose of euphemism.
locative case, loc.
"Locative". A case used to indicate place, or the place where, or wherein. It corresponds roughly to the
English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". Some languages use the same locative case construct to
indicate when, so the English phrase "in summer" would use the locative case construct.

M
m
Of masculine gender.
men's speech
In certain languages (for example, Karaj language), men and women use or historically used distinct
words and inflected forms.
mass noun
see uncountable noun, below.
measure word
See counter.
mediopassive
See middle voice.
meronym
A term that denotes a part of the whole that is denoted by another term. The word "arm" is a meronym

of the word "body". The term which describes the whole, as being an opposite of meronym, is
holonym.
middle voice
The voice verb form in which the subject of a verb performs some action upon itself, it falls
somewhere between the active and passive voices. Found in a few languages (e.g. Sanskrit, Ancient
Greek, Icelandic). (see Voice (grammar) on Wikipedia.)
minced oath
A euphemism based on a profanity that has been altered to reduce or remove the objectionable
characteristics of the original expression.
monolectic
Used of a grammatical form accomplished with one word (cf polylectic and periphrastic).
mood
One of the forms of a verb, used to indicate the speaker's attitude toward what they are saying (e.g. a
statement of fact, of desire, of command, etc.). Examples include indicative, subjunctive, imperative,
conditional. (see Grammatical mood on Wikipedia.)
mpl
Masculine plural.
mute h
In French, an initial <h> that is treated like a vowel; that is to say, liaison and elision are permitted at
the beginning of words that have a mute h.

N
n
Of neuter gender.
negative polarity item
A term or construction that is generally found only in questions, negative sentences, and certain other
negative polarity contexts; for example, anyone is a negative polarity item, as one can say "I did not
see anyone" and "Did you see anyone?", but not *"I saw anyone."
neologism
A newly coined term or meaning. See Wiktionary:Neologisms.
nominal
Related to nouns. See also denominal.
As a noun, it refers to any part of speech that is noun-like in some way, and normally includes nouns
themselves along with adjectives, pronouns and determiners. The inflection of nominals is commonly
called declension.
nominative case
A case that is usually used as the subject of a verb. For example, if English had a fully productive case
system, then (the) man in "The man threw the ball" would most likely be in the nominative case.
non-past tense
The tense of a verb that does not pertain to the past; in particular, applicable to both the present and
the future. Common in some languages, such as Arabic. In English, the main verb in the sentences I
am running tomorrow and I am running now can be said to be in the non-past tense, since the same

verb can be used to express both the present and the future.
nonstandard
Not conforming to the language as accepted by the majority of its speakers.
nonvirile
In Slavic languages, a plural gender used for all groups that do not contain men, as well as plurals of
masculine animate, masculine inanimate, feminine and neuter nouns. See virile.
noun
An object such as a ball, a chair or an animal, or a concept such as happiness, joy or loveliness. See
also countable, uncountable and plural.
noun class
In some languages (especially the Bantu languages), a way of classifying nouns much like gender, but
determined by other considerations such as the type and shape of an object, whether it is animate or
inanimate, a person or non-person, and so on.
number, grammatical number
A grammatical category that indicates how many items or individuals. Examples are singular, plural
and dual.

O
object
The entity that is acted upon by a verb. For example, in the sentence Tom studies grammar, the word
grammar is the object.
oblique case
Especially in Hindi and Old French, refers to any case which is neither a nominative nor a vocative.
obsolete, obs.
No longer in use, and (of a term) no longer likely to be understood. Obsolete is a stronger term than
archaic, and a much stronger term than dated. See Wiktionary:Obsolete and archaic terms.
OED
Oxford English Dictionary. Also SOED (Shorter), OED1 (1st edition), OED2 (2nd edition), NOED
(New).
onomatopoeia
A word that is meant to sound like what it represents. English examples are kaboom, cuckoo, tweet
and ding dong.
outdated
see dated
oxytone
With the stress upon the final syllable (eg (ethniks)). Compare with paroxytone and
proparoxytone.

P
p.

post or after, often used in quotations. Hence, a quotation from "p. 1924" is a quotation from no earlier
than 1924.
plural.
palatalization
The state or quality of being palatalized, i.e. of pronouncing a sound with the tongue against the palate
of the mouth that normally is not so pronounced. Also, a sound change that involves a change of
consonants to become palatalized or move in the direction of the palate; one of the most common of
sound changes, and usually triggered by a following /e/, /i/ or /j/. In English, for example,
palatalization as a sound change converted /t/ /d/ /s/ /z/ to /t / /d / // // before a
subsequently lost /j/, resulting in the sounds found in closure, azure, nature, educate, where the
spelling still indicates the sound as it was prior to palatalization. Palatalization still operates
synchronically before a /j/, producing e.g. the pronunciation gotcha from got you. (see also
Palatalization on Wikipedia.)
paroxytone
With the stress upon the penultimate (second to last) syllable (e.g., (ethnolgos)).
Compare with oxytone and proparoxytone.
part of speech (abbreviated POS or PoS)
The category that a word belongs to, with respect to how it's used as part of phrases and sentences.
Examples are nouns, adjectives and verbs. The part of speech is inherent in the word itself, and is
independent of any specific role that the word may have within any given sentence (e.g. subject, direct
object). Words may belong to more than one part of speech: English this is both a determiner and a
pronoun, while coat is both a noun and a verb.
participle
A form of a verb that may function as an adjective or noun. English has two types of participles: the
present participle and the past participle.
particle
A word that does not fall into the usual part of speech categories, but which modifies another word or
the sentence as a whole. The English term like is used as a particle in many dialects. Particles are more
common in other Indo-European languages (e.g. German doch, which marks a sentence as being
surprising or rebutting a previous statement) and in East Asian languages (e.g. Japanese , which
marks the topic of a sentence). Many clitics are particles.
partitive
Indicating partialness or indeterminateness, such as "some water" or "something nice". In Dutch, it is a
word form that is used when referring to undetermined things or amounts. French has special partitive
articles which qualify indefinite mass nouns.
partitive case
A case that expresses a partial object or an action that is not performed to completion.
passive voice
the voice verb form in which the subject is not the person or thing doing the action, and is usually
having the action done on them, cf active voice. (see also Voice (grammar) on Wikipedia.) eg:
the ball was kicked (by the boy).
past tense
The tense of a verb used to refer to an event, transaction, or occurrence that did happen or has
happened, or an object that existed, at a point in time before now. An English example is saw in I saw
my friend yesterday.

past perfect
Same as pluperfect.
perfect
The aspect of a verb, indicating that the action described is completed. Consists of the verb 'have' +
the past participle e.g., 'Tom has painted the fence' 'Tom has taken medicine'. Depending on the tense
of 'have' one can have present perfect, which are represented in the previous examples, or past perfect:
'Tom had painted the fence', 'Tom had taken medicine'. 'To have painted' is a perfect infinitive. See
also Imperfect. Not to be confused with perfective.
perfective
The aspect of a verb, which denotes viewing the event the verb describes as a completed whole, rather
than from within the event as it unfolds. For example, "she sat down" as opposed to "she was sitting
down". Since the focus is on the completion of what is expressed by the verb, this aspect is generally
associated with the past and future tenses. Common in Slavic languages such as Russian. This term is
often used interchangeably with aorist aspect. Not to be confused with perfect. (see Perfective
aspect on Wikipedia.)
periphrastic
Using more words to produce a grammatical effect. For example more fair is a periphrastic form of
fairer. The English future tense requires periphrastic usage: "I will write an essay." (Compare
monolectic and polylectic.)
person, grammatical person
A grammatical category that indicates the relationship between the speaker and what is being spoken
of. Examples are first person, second person and third person.
phrase
(Sometimes called a "set phrase".) A string of words which have a special meaning. In other words, if
one of the words in the phrase is changed for another word of similar meaning, the entire phrase is
altered. Flight simulator is a phrase because it has a special meaning that flying simulator doesn't.
Compare idiom.
pluperfect
A verb form of perfect aspect and past tense, which is used to describe an action or event which is
regarded as having been completed in the past, in relation to a time already in the past. E.g., Tom had
painted the fence before I got there.
plural, plural number, pl., p.
A grammatical number that indicates multiple items or individuals. Most languages contrast it with
singular, in which case plural indicates two or more. Some languages also possess the dual or even
trial numbers; in these cases the plural indicates more than the highest specific number.
plurale tantum
A noun (or a sense of a noun) that is inherently plural and is not used (or is not used in the same sense)
in the singular, such as pants in the senses of "trousers" and "underpants", or wheels in the sense of
"car". However, in practice, most pluralia tantum are found in the singular in rare cases. (See
Category:English pluralia tantum.)
polylectic
Used of a grammatical form accomplished with more than one word (cf monolectic and periphrastic).
portmanteau
A blend that combines meanings.

positive
The 'normal' form of the degrees of comparison of an adjective or adverb. Thus big is the positive
form of the trio big, bigger, biggest.
postpositive
Placed after the word modified.
prepositional case
A case used in certain languages, especially Russian, after certain prepositions. In Russian, it
corresponds to the locative case in other Slavic languages.
present tense
The tense of a verb used to refer to an event, transaction, or occurrence which is happening now (or at
the present time), or an object that currently exists. An English example is see in I see my friend in the
window.
preterite-present verb
In Germanic languages, a verb that displays (or historically displayed) ablaut in the present tense, and
thereby had present tense forms resembling the past (or preterite) tense of a strong verb. Most
languages have no more than a handful of such verbs, and they are often used as auxiliary verbs.
English examples are shall, can, may. Contrast strong verb, weak verb.
productive
Used to form new words and phrases. For example, when a new verb appears in Modern English, the
productive suffix -ed is used to form its past participle; by contrast, the suffix -en appears in many
existing past participles, but is not productive, in that it is not (usually) used to form new ones.
progressive
The aspect of a verb, indicating that the action described is, was or will be continuing, uncompleted or
repeated. A verb form indicating that an action is in progress. In English, formed from a combination
of 'be' + the present participle ('-ing' form) of the verb. So one can have present progressive e.g., "is
painting", past progressive e.g., "was painting", future progressive e.g., "will be painting", etc. Similar
to, but less general than, the imperfective aspect. See also continuous.
proparoxytone
With the stress upon the antepenultimate (third to last) syllable (e.g., (ethniktita)).
Compare with oxytone and paroxytone.
proper noun
A kind of noun that usually refers to a specific, unique thing, such as Earth and the Alps, though one
language's proper noun may translate to another language using a common (not proper) noun. In
English, proper nouns are usually capitalized, as are common nouns and adjectives derived from
proper nouns. The same word may have both common-noun and proper-noun senses (such as German,
which is both a proper noun denoting a certain language, and a common noun denoting a person from
Germany), and most proper nouns can sometimes be used as common nouns (e.g., John is a proper
noun that is a first name, but can be used a common noun with plural Johns meaning people named
John).
proscribed
Some educators or other authorities recommend against the listed usage.

R
reanalysis

Analyzing a lexeme with a different structure from its original, often by misunderstanding. For
example, hamburger, which is originally Hamburg + -er, was reanalyzed as ham + -burger, which
produced words like cheeseburger.
reconstruction
A word that is not recorded in actual texts or other media, but has been recreated from its descendant
forms, using the comparative method of linguistics.
related terms
Words in the same language that have strong etymological connections but are not derived terms.
relative
Marking a relative clause. Often used of pronouns, such as the tree which....
In the Bantu languages, a part of speech that resembles an adjective in function, but behaves
morphologically and syntactically like a relative clause.
rhetoric
1. The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing. 2. A string of words that are designed to
impress or confuse, rather than communicate.
rhetorical question
A question to which the speaker does not expect an answer
Romanization, Romanisation
Transliteration of a string in a non-Roman script into the Roman one: e.g. singnmi in
(syngnmi)).
root
The part of a word that forms its core and gives its most basic meaning; also the part of the word that
is left when all affixes are removed. For example, in insubordination, the root is ord, while in
unspeakableness it is speak. The root is often the first part of the word (as in Uralic and often in IndoEuropean languages), but it may also be the last part, or it may only consist of the consonants of the
word (as in the Afro-Asiatic languages). A word that consists of more than one root is a compound.

S
s., sg.
Singular.
SAMPA
SAMPA, a set of systems for representing the phonemes of various languages in plain ASCII text. Not
to be confused with XSAMPA, the system for representing the full International Phonetic Alphabet
in plain ASCII text.
second person, 2nd person
A grammatical person that indicates the person or group that one is speaking to. Examples are the
English pronouns you and thou.
semelfactive
A verbal aspect, a subclass of perfective, which denotes a momentary or punctual event (e.g. to
sneeze, to blink, to knock). In Slavic languages such as Russian, often used to express actions
performed once. (see Semelfactive on Wikipedia.)
set phrase

Set phrase, a common expression whose wording is not subject to variation, or alternately, whose
words cannot be replaced by synonymous words without compromising the meaning. Set phrases may
include idioms, proverbs, and colloquialisms.
sic
A Latin adverb meaning "thus, so". It is traditionally placed inside square brackets and used in
quotations to indicate that the preceding is not a copying error, but is in fact a verbatim reflection of
the source. (For example, if a source contains a typographical error, someone quoting the source might
add [sic] to make clear that the error was in the original source.)
simile
A figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another, in the case of English generally using
like or as.
singular, singular number, sg. , s
A grammatical number that indicates exactly one item or individual. Usually contrasts with plural,
and, in some cases, with dual.
Sino-Xenic
Refers to pronunciations in Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese languages (grouped with Chinese as
CJKV) of terms or components derived from medieval Chinese.
slang
Denotes language that is unique to a particular profession or subject, i.e. jargon. Also refers to the
specialized language of a social group, sometimes used to make what is said unintelligible to those
who are not members of the group, i.e. cant. Such language is usually outside of conventional usage,
and is mostly inappropriate in formal contexts.
snowclone
A type of clich which uses an old idiom formulaically in a new context.
stem
The part of an inflected word that the ending is attached to. For example, Latin mens- (stem, "table") +
-ae (ending, 1st declension nominative plural) mensae (full word, "tables", nominative plural).
strong pronoun
(Greek) An emphatic pronoun.
strong verb
In Germanic languages, a verb that displays ablaut. More specifically, a verb that has a change in
vowel between present and past. An English example is drink, drank, drunk. Note that some verbs
show a vowel change, but not as a result of ablaut (e.g. think, thought); these are not considered strong
verbs. Contrast weak verb, preterite-present verb.
subjunctive mood
The mood of a verb expressing an action or state which is hypothetical or anticipated rather than
actual, including wishes and commands. An English example is were in if I were rich, ....
substantive
A noun or adjective (or phrase), that names a real object with substance. This is in contrast to an
attributive noun or adjective, which names a real object that carries the attributes of the named noun
or adjective.
superlative
An inflection, or different form, of a comparable adjective showing a relative quality, denoting "to the

ultimate extent" (see also comparative and degrees of comparison). In English, the superlative form
is often formed by appending -est, or using the word most. For example, the superlative of big is
"biggest"; of confident, "most confident".
supine
A type of verbal noun, especially used in Latin, for the ablative and accusative case of an infinitive.

T
tense
One of the forms of a verb, used to distinguish when an action or state of being occurs or exists. The
basic tenses in many languages are present, past, future. (see Grammatical tense on Wikipedia.)
third person, 3rd person
A grammatical person that indicates someone or something that is neither the person or group to
which the speaker belongs, nor the person or group that the speaker is speaking to. Examples are the
English pronouns he, she, it, this, that, and so on. All nouns are generally considered third person.
tr., tran.
translator or translated, often used in quotations.
transgressive
a verb form in some Balto-Slavic languages that expresses a coincidentally proceeding or following
action.
transitive verb
a verb which requires one or more objects (eg I kick the ball), cf. intransitive verb.
transliteration
the conversion of text in one script into an equivalent in another script. This may include the
conversion of diacritical marks into alternate forms without diacritical marks (e.g. Mrder
Moerder).
troponym
A verb that indicates more precisely the manner of doing something by replacing a verb of a more
generalized meaning.

U
UK
UK English, i.e. the English of the United Kingdom.
uncomparable, not comparable
(of adjectives) unable to be compared, or lacking a comparative and superlative function. See
comparable. Examples of adjectives that are not comparable: annual, first, extra, satin, six-figure.
uncountable, uncountable noun, mass noun
A noun that cannot be used freely with numbers or the indefinite article, and which therefore takes no
plural form. For example, the English noun information is a mass noun, at least in its principal senses.
For those senses, we cannot say that we have *one information, nor that we have *many information
(or *many informations). Many languages do not distinguish between countable and uncountable
nouns. Antonym: countable, or count noun.

undeclinable
see: indeclinable

V
verb
A word that indicates an action, occurrence or state of being. The inflection of verbs is commonly
called conjugation.
virile
In Slavic languages, a plural gender used for groups that include men and for masculine personal
nouns.
vocative case
A case which indicates that someone or something is being directly addressed (spoken to), often by
name. For example, in the English phrase He's dead, Jim the name Jim would be a vocative.
voice
A verb characteristic (expressed in some languages by inflection) indicating its relationship with the
subject. The usual voices are: active, passive and middle. see also Voice (grammar) on Wikipedia.
vulgar
Language considered distasteful or obscene.

W
weak pronoun
A pronoun of one syllable which is dependent on another word and cannot be used on its own;
sometimes called clitic. Compare with emphatic or strong.
weak verb
In Germanic languages, a verb that forms the past tense using a suffix containing a dental consonant
(d, t, or similar). Verbs of this type are considered "regular" in most Germanic languages, but there
are also irregular weak verbs, such as English think, thought and have, had. Contrast strong verb,
preterite-present verb.
WMF
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., the parent organization of Wiktionary and other projects.
women's speech
In certain languages (for example, Karaj language), men and women use or historically used distinct
words and inflected forms.

X
X-SAMPA
Extended SAMPA, a system for representing the full International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in plain
text.

Z
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