adjective

English

Etymology

From Old French adjectif, from Latin adiectīvum, from ad (“next to”) + -iect-, perfect passive participle of iaciō (“throw”) + -īvus, adjective ending; hence, a word "thrown next to" a noun, modifying it.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

adjective (not generally comparable; )

1. (obsolete) 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.

2. (grammar) Adjectival; pertaining to or functioning as an adjective.
3. (law) Applying to methods of enforcement and rules of procedure.
   • Macaulay

     The whole English law, substantive and adjective.

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

Synonyms

• (incapable of independent function): dependent, derivative
• (functioning as an adjective): adjectival
• (applying to methods of enforcement and rules of procedure): procedural

Antonyms

• (applying to methods of enforcement and rules of procedure): substantive
• (of a dye that needs the use of a mordant): substantive

Derived terms

• adjectival
• adjective clause
• adjective phrase
• adjective patterns
• proper adjective

Translations

incapable of independent function

• Catalan: adjectiu (ca)
• Japanese: 非独立性の (ja), 依存性の (ja)

• Kurdish:

  Kurmanji: rengdêr (kmr) f

functioning as an adjective

• Afrikaans: byvoeglike (af)
• Albanian: mbiemër
• Arabic: وَصْفِيّ (ar) (wáʂfiy), نَعْتِيّ (ar) (náʕtiy)
• Armenian: ածական (hy) (açakan) 
• Asturian: axetivu (ast) m
• Azeri: sıfət (az)
• Bashkir: сифат (sifat)
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: please add this translation if you can
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: adjectiu (ca)
• Chechen: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 形容詞的

  Gan: please add this translation if you can

  Hakka: please add this translation if you can

  Mandarin: 形容词的 (cmn)

  Min Dong: please add this translation if you can

  Min Nan: please add this translation if you can

  Wu: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: přídavné jméno (cs) n
• Danish: adjektiv (da) n
• Dhivehi: nan-ithuru
• Dutch: bijvoeglijk, adjectivisch
• Esperanto: adjektivo (eo)
• Faroese: lýsingarorð (fo) n
• Finnish: adjektiivi (in compound words), adjektiivinen (otherwise)
• French: adjectif (fr)
• Galician: adxectivo (gl) m
• German: adjektivisch (de)
• Greek: επιθετικός (el) (epithetikós) 
• Hebrew: תואר השם (he)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: melléknévi (hu)
• Icelandic: lýsingarorð (is)
• Ido: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: kata sifat (id)
• Interlingua: adjective, adjectival
• Interlingue: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: aidiachtach (ga)

• Italian: aggettivale (it)
• Japanese: 形容詞の (ja) (けいようしの, keiyōshi no), 形容する (ja) (keiyō-suru)
• Javanese: please add this translation if you can
• Kashmiri: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: сын есім (kk) (sın yesim)
• Khmer: គុណនាម (km) (kunnaneam)
• Korean: 형용사 (hyeong-yongsa)
• Kurdish: please add this translation if you can
• Kyrgyz: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: adjectivum (la)
• Macedonian: придавен (mk) (prídaven) m, придавски (mk) (prídavski) m
• Malay: kata sifat (ms)
• Nepali: विशेषण (ne)
• Novial: adjektivi, adjektival
• Persian: وصفی (fa) (vasfi)
• Polish: przymiotnikowy
• Portuguese: adjectivo (Portugal), adjetivo (Brazil)
• Quechua: sutip rampaqnin (qu)
• Romanian: adjectival (ro)
• Russian: прилагательный (ru) (prilagátel’nyj) 
• Slovak: prídavné meno (sk) n
• Slovene: pridevniški
• Spanish: adjetivo (es)
• Sundanese: adjéktif (su)
• Swahili: tashbihi (sw)
• Swedish: adjektiv (sv) n
• Tagalog: pang-uri (tl)
• Tajik: please add this translation if you can
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: คุณศัพท์ (kunnásàp)
• Turkish: sıfat (tr)
• Turkmen: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: прикметник (uk) m (prykmetnyk)
• Urdu: please add this translation if you can
• Uzbek: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: có tính chất tính từ (vi)
• Volapük: ladyekik (vo)
• West Frisian: eigenskip oantsjuttend (fy)
• Samogitian: please add this translation if you can

methods of enforcement and rules of procedure

• Afrikaans: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: إجْرائِيّ (ar) (’ijrā’iy)
• Dutch: formeel (nl)
• French: … de procédure (fr)
• German: formal (de)
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Icelandic: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: please add this translation if you can

• Interlingua: adjective, adjectival
• Japanese: 手続き上の (ja) (てつづきじょうの, tetsudzukijō no)
• Polish: przymiotnikowy
• Portuguese: adjectivo (Portugal), adjetivo (Brazil)
• Romanian: adjectiv m, adjectivă f
• Spanish: adjetivo (es)
• Swahili: tashbihi (sw)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• West Frisian: protokol (fy) c

of a dye that needs the use of a mordant

• Catalan: adjectiu (ca)

Noun

Wikipedia adjective (plural adjectives)

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

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

2. (obsolete) A dependent; an accessory.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Fuller to this entry?)

Hyponyms

• See also Wikisaurus:adjective

Translations

(grammar) a word that modifies a noun or describes a noun’s referent

• Afrikaans: byvoeglike naamwoord (af)
• Albanian: mbiemër (sq)

  Tosk: adjektiv (als)

• Arabic: نعت (ar) (naʿt) m, صفة (ar) (ṣífa) f
• Aragonese: adchectivo (an) m
• Aramaic: גדשניא (gedšanāya) m
• Armenian: ածական (hy) (açakan) 
• Assamese: please add this translation if you can
• Asturian: axetivu (ast) m
• Azeri: sifət (az)
• Bashkir: сифат (sifat)
• Basque: adjektibo (eu), izenondo (eu)
• Bavarian: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: прыметнік (be) (prymétnik) m 
• Bengali: বিশেষণ (bn) (bisheshawn)
• Bishnupriya Manipuri: please add this translation if you can
• Breton: anv-gwan (br)
• Bulgarian: прилагателно име (bg) (prilagátelno íme) n 
• Burmese: နာမဝိသေသန (my) (nama witheithana)
• Buryat: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: adjectiu (ca) m
• Cebuano: please add this translation if you can
• Chechen: билгалдош (bilgaldoš)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 形容詞 (cmn), 形容词 (cmn) (xíngróngcí)

  Min Nan: 形容詞 (nan), 形容词 (nan) (hêng-iông-sû)

• Chuvash: паллă ячĕ
• Cornish: hanow gwan (kw) m
• Corsican: please add this translation if you can
• Crimean Tatar: sıfat
• Czech: přídavné jméno (cs) n
• Danish: tillægsord (da), adjektiv (da)
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: bijvoeglijk naamwoord (nl) n, adjectief (nl) n
• Esperanto: adjektivo (eo)
• Estonian: omadussõna (et), adjektiiv (et)
• Faroese: lýsingarorð (fo) n
• Finnish: adjektiivi (fi), laatusana (fi)
• French: adjectif (fr) m
• Friulian: agetîv
• Galician: adxectivo (gl) m
• Georgian: ზედსართავი სახელი (ka) (zedsart'avi saxeli) , სახელი (ka) (saxeli) 
• German: Adjektiv (de) n, Eigenschaftswort (de) n
• Greek: επίθετο (el) (epítheto) n 

  Ancient: ἐπιθετικόν

• Hausa: please add this translation if you can
• Hawaiian: haʻiʻano
• Hebrew: שם תואר (he) (shem to'ar) m
• Hindi: बिशेषण (hi) (biśeṣaṇ) m
• Hungarian: melléknév (hu)
• Icelandic: lýsingarorð (is) n
• Ido: adjektivo (io)
• Indonesian: kata sifat (id), adjektiva (id)
• Interlingua: adjectivo (ia)
• Interlingue: adjective (ie)
• Irish: aidiacht (ga) f
• Italian: aggettivo (it) m
• Japanese: 形容詞 (ja) (けいようし, keiyōshi) (for "い" ending in Japanese, and translation for "adjective" in other languages), 形容動詞 (ja) (けいようどうし, keiyō-dōshi) (for "だ/な" ending)
• Javanese: please add this translation if you can
• Jèrriais: adjectif m
• Kashubian: przëdownik (csb) m
• Kazakh: сын есім (kk) (sın esim) 
• Khmer: គុណនាម (km) (kunnaneam)
• Kinyarwanda: please add this translation if you can
• Kirundi: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 형용사 (ko) (hyeong-yongsa) (形容詞 (ko))
• Kyrgyz: сын атооч (ky) (sın atooç) 

• Lao: ຄຳຄຸນນາມ (lo) (kham khun nām)
• Latin: verbum adiectum (la) n
• Latvian: īpašības vārds (lv) m
• Limburgish: bievooglik naamwaord (li) n
• Lingala: likonzámí (ln)
• Lithuanian: būdvardis (lt)
• Low German:

  German Low German: Adjektiv

• Lower Sorbian: adjektiw m
• Luganda: please add this translation if you can
• Luxembourgish: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: придавка (mk) (prídavka) f
• Malay: kata sifat (ms)
• Malayalam: നാമവിശേഷണം (ml) (nāmaviśeṣṇaṁ)
• Maltese: aġġettiv (mt)
• Manx: marennym (gv) m
• Mongolian: тэмдэг нэр (mn) (temdeg ner) 
• Nepali: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: adjektiv (no)

  Nynorsk: adjektiv (nn)

• Novial: adjektive
• Occitan: adjectiu (oc) m
• Oriya: ବିଶେଷଣ (or) (biśeṣaṇ)
• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: صفت (fa) (sefat)
• Polish: przymiotnik (pl) m
• Portuguese: adjectivo (pt) (Portugal), adjetivo (pt) (Brazil)
• Quechua: sutip rampaqnin (qu)
• Romanian: adjectiv (ro) n
• Romansch: adjectiv (rm)
• Russian: имя прилагательное (ru) (ímja prilagátelʹnoje) n , прилагательное (ru) (prilagátelʹnoje) n 
• Sanskrit: विशेषण (sa) (viśeṣaṇa) m
• Scots: adjective
• Scottish Gaelic: buadhair (gd) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: (Ekavian) придев (sh) m, (Ijekavian) придјев (sh) m

  Roman: (Ekavian) pridev (sh) m, (Ijekavian) pridjev (sh) m

• Sicilian: aggittivi (scn)
• Sindhi: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: prídavné meno (sk) n
• Slovene: pridevnik (sl) m
• Somali: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: adjetivo (es) m
• Sundanese: adjéktif (su)
• Swahili: kivumishi (sw), sifa (sw)
• Swedish: adjektiv (sv) n
• Tagalog: pang-uri (tl)
• Tajik: сифат (tg) (sifat) 
• Telugu: విశేషణము (te) (viśēṣaṇamu)
• Thai: คำคุณศัพท์ (th) (kam koon sàp)
• Turkish: sıfat (tr), ön ad (tr)
• Turkmen: sypat (tk)
• Ukrainian: прикметник (uk) (prykmétnyk) m 
• Upper Sorbian: adjektiw (hsb) m
• Urdu: بشیشن (ur) (biśeśan) m, صفت (ur) (sifat) f
• Uzbek: sifat (uz)
• Vietnamese: tính từ (vi)
• Volapük: ladyek (vo)
• Võro: umahussyna
• Walloon: addjectif (wa)
• West Frisian: eigenskipswurd (fy) n
• Wolof: please add this translation if you can
• Xhosa: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: אַדיעקטיוו (yi) (adyektiv) m
• Zazaki: please add this translation if you can
• Zulu: isiphawulo (zu) 7/8

Verb

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.
   • Tooke

     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 […]

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French

Adjective

adjective

1. feminine form of adjectif

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Interlingue

Noun

adjective

1. adjective

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Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA: [ad.ʒekˈti.ve]

Noun

adjective

1. Plural form of adjectiv