adjective

From Middle English adjectif, adjective, from Old French adjectif, from Latin adiectivus, from adiciō + -īvus, from ad- (“to, towards, at”) + iaciō (“throw”). The Latin word adiectivus in turn was a calque of Ancient Greek ἐπιθετικόν (epithetikón, “added”), a derivative of the compound verb ἐπιτίθημι (epitíthēmi), from which also comes epithet.

• IPA^(key): /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɪk.tɪv/, /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɛk.tɪv/, /ˈæd͡ʒ.ək.tɪv/, /ˈæd͡ʒ.ə.tɪv/

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ăɖ.d͡ʒĕk.ʈɪv/

adjective (plural adjectives)

2. (grammar) A word that modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes a noun’s referent.

   The words “big” and “heavy” are English adjectives.

   • 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 8:

     "They'll have to invent new adjectives when I come back. You wait!"

   • 2019 September 24, Jessie Yeung, quoting Pope Francis, “Pope Francis loves nouns but is ‘allergic’ to adjectives”, in CNN‎^[1], archived from the original on 27 September 2019:

     "We have fallen into the culture of adjectives and adverbs, and we have forgotten the strength of nouns," he said.

   • 2023 April 27, George Ramsay, “Pelé added to Portuguese dictionary as an adjective for ‘out of the ordinary’”, in CNN‎^[2], archived from the original on 19 December 2024:

     The Brazilian football legend, who passed away in December, has been added to the Portuguese edition of the Michaelis dictionary as an adjective to describe someone or something “out of the ordinary.”

3. (obsolete) A dependent; an accessory.
   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of the University of Cambridge, since the Conquest, [London]: [[…] Iohn Williams […]], →OCLC:

     it must be an adjective of dain

• See Thesaurus:adjective

adjective (not comparable)

1. (grammar) Adjectival; pertaining to or functioning as an adjective.

   Synonym: adjectival

2. (law) Applying to methods of enforcement and rules of procedure.
   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter X, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     The whole English law, substantive and adjective.

   Synonym: procedural

   Antonym: substantive

3. (chemistry, of a dye) Needing the use of a mordant to be made fast to that which is being dyed.

   Antonym: substantive

4. (obsolete, reflected in the chemical sense, but extinct as a general sense) Incapable of independent function.
   • 1899, John Jay Chapman, Emerson and Other Essays, AMS Press (1969) (as reproduced in Project Gutenberg)

     In fact, God is of not so much importance in Himself, but as the end towards which man tends. That irreverent person who said that Browning uses “God” as a pigment made an accurate criticism of his theology. In Browning, God is adjective to man.

   Synonyms: dependent, derivative

   Coordinate terms: adjunct, adjunctive, adjutant

adjective (third-person singular simple present adjectives, present participle adjectiving, simple past and past participle adjectived)

1. (transitive) To make an adjective of; to form or convert into an adjective.
   • 1805, John Horne Tooke, Epea Pteroenta: or The Diversions of Purley Part 2

     Language has as much occasion to adjective the distinct signification of the verb, and to adjective also the mood, as it has to adjective time. It has […] adjectived all three.

   • 1832, William Hunter, An Anglo-Saxon grammar, and derivatives, page 46:

     In English, instead of adjectiving our own substantives, we have borrowed, in immense numbers, adjectived signs from other languages […]

2. (transitive, chiefly as a participle) To characterize with an adjective; to describe by using an adjective.

• adjectify
• adjectivize

• (converting into or using as another part of speech)
  
  • adjectivize/adjectivise, adjective, adjectify
  • adverbialize/adverbialise, (rare) adverb, (rare) adverbify, adverbize
  • nominalize/nominalise, substantivize/substantivise, noun, (rare) nounify, substantify, (very rare) substantive
  • verbalize/verbalise, (colloquial) verb, verbify

• IPA^(key): /a.dʒɛk.tiv/

• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

  (file)

adjective

1. feminine singular of adjectif

adjectīve

1. vocative masculine singular of adjectīvus

adjective

1. inflection of adjectivar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): [ad.ʒekˈti.ve]

adjective

1. plural of adjectiv

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

From Latin (nomen) adjectivum.

adjective (plural adjectives)

1. (grammar) adjective