verb

See also: Verb and vèrb

English

Alternative forms

• vb., v. (abbreviation)

Etymology 1

From Middle English verbe, directly from Latin verbum (“word, verb”), reinforced by Old French verbe, from Proto-Indo-European *werdʰo-. Doublet of verve and word.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /vɜːb/
• (US) IPA^(key): /vɝb/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /vəɹb/, [vɚ(ɹ)b]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)b

Noun

verb (plural verbs)

2. (grammar) A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being.

   The word “speak” is an English verb.

   • 1530 July 18, Iohan Palſgrave, “The Introduction”, in Leſclarciſſement de la langue francoyſe […] ‎^[1], London: Richard Pynſon, Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, page 32; reprinted as Lesclarcissement de la langue françoyse, Genève: Slatkine Reprints, 1972:

     In ſo moche that if any verbe be of the thyꝛde coniugation / I ſet out all his rotes and tenſes […]

3. (obsolete) Any word; a vocable.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

     a Verb of the Singular

4. (figurative) An action as opposed to a trait or thing.

   Kindness is a verb, not an adjective. You're only kind if you do kind things.

5. (programming) A named command that performs a specific operation on an object.
   • 1995, Adam Denning, OLE Controls Inside Out, page 321:

     You can invoke the Properties OLE verb in many ways. The easiest way is to move the mouse over the border of the control until it becomes only a four-way pointer and then right-click.

   • 2016, Ada Gavrilovska, Attaining High Performance Communications: A Vertical Approach:

     The InfiniBand verbs, which are closely modeled in the “Gen2” interface, provide the functional specification for the operations that should be allowed on an InfiniBand compliant adapter.

Usage notes

• Verbs compose a fundamental category of words in most languages. In an English clause, a verb forms the head of the predicate of the clause. In many languages, verbs uniquely conjugate for tense and aspect.

Quotations

• 2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 221:

  Then you could say that the doorway exploded. But the particular verb doesn't do the action justice. Rather, it shattered into infinitesimal pieces.

Hyponyms

• See: Thesaurus:verb

Derived terms

• abstract verb
• action verb
• adjective verb
• adverb
• attributive verb
• auxiliary verb
• boot verb
• catenative verb
• causal verb
• causative verb
• concrete verb
• control verb
• copular verb
• coverb
• defective verb
• definite verb
• determinate verb
• deverbative
• direct verb
• ditransitive verb
• dynamic verb
• ergative verb
• finite verb
• full verb
• guess the verb
• helper verb
• helping verb
• HTTP verb
• impersonal verb
• indefinite verb
• indeterminate verb
• intradirective verb
• intransitive verb
• irregular verb
• labile verb
• lexical verb
• light verb
• linking verb
• link verb
• main verb
• middle verb
• modal verb
• monotransitive verb
• multiverb
• negative verb
• non-finite verb
• nonverb
• particle verb
• phrasal prepositional verb
• phrasal verb
• potential verb
• prepositional verb
• preterite-present verb
• preverb
• progressive verb
• pronominal verb
• pro-verb
• pseudoverb
• psych verb
• reflexive verb
• regular verb
• reporting verb
• separable verb
• shoe verb
• stative verb
• stem-changing verb
• strong verb
• subject-verb agreement
• substantive verb
• transitive verb
• vector verb
• verbal
• verbal complement
• verbal noun
• verbal regency
• verbarian
• verbate
• verbdom
• verb form
• verb-framed
• verb-framing
• verbhood
• verbid
• verbification
• verb inflection
• verbize
• verbless
• verbless clause
• verblike
• verbness
• verb-object
• verb of motion
• verb phrase
• verb tense
• verby
• weak verb
• weather verb

• See also: Thesaurus:verb

Translations

(grammar) a word that indicates an action, event, or a state

• Acehnese: please add this translation if you can
• Afrikaans: werkwoord (af)
• Albanian: folje (sq) f
• Amharic: ግሥ (am) (gəś)
• Arabic: فِعْل (ar) m (fiʕl)

  Egyptian Arabic: فعل m (feʕl)

• Aragonese: berbo (an)
• Aramaic:

  Classical Syriac: ܡܠܬܐ f (miltā’)

  Hebrew script: מלתא f (miltā’)

• Armenian: բայ (hy) (bay)
• Assamese: ক্ৰিয়া (kria)
• Asturian: verbu (ast)
• Aymara: parliri
• Azerbaijani: feʼl, feil
• Bashkir: ҡылым (qılım)
• Basque: aditz
• Belarusian: дзеясло́ў (be) m (dzjejaslów)
• Bengali: ক্রিয়াপদ (bn) (kriẏapod), ক্রিয়া (bn) (kriẏa)
• Bikol:

  Central Bikol: panhiro

• Breton: verb (br)
• Bulgarian: глаго́л (bg) m (glagól)
• Burmese: ကြိယာ (my) (kri.ya)
• Carpathian Rusyn: часослово n (časoslovo)
• Catalan: verb (ca)
• Chakma: please add this translation if you can
• Chechen: хандош (xandoš)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 動詞 / 动词 (dung⁶ ci⁴)

  Hakka: 動詞 / 动词 (thûng-chhṳ̀)

  Hokkien: 動詞 / 动词 (zh-min-nan) (tōng-sû)

  Mandarin: 動詞 / 动词 (zh) (dòngcí)

• Chuvash: глагол (glagol)
• Corsican: please add this translation if you can
• Crimean Tatar: fiil
• Czech: sloveso (cs) n, verbum (cs) n
• Danish: udsagnsord (da) n, verbum (da) n
• Dhivehi: ކއަނ (kan)
• Dutch: werkwoord (nl) n
• Dzongkha: please add this translation if you can
• Emilian: please add this translation if you can
• Erzya: теввал (tevval), теемавал (tejemaval)
• Esperanto: verbo (eo)
• Estonian: tegusõna (et), pöördsõna, verb (et)
• Ewe: dɔwɔnya
• Extremaduran: please add this translation if you can
• Faroese: sagnorð (fo) n
• Finnish: verbi (fi), teonsana (fi)
• Franco-Provençal: please add this translation if you can
• French: verbe (fr) m
• Frisian:

  West Frisian: tiidwurd (fy) n

• Friulian: please add this translation if you can
• Galician: verbo (gl) m
• Georgian: ზმნა (ka) (zmna)
• German: Verb (de) n, Verbum (de) n, Zeitwort (de) n, Tätigkeitswort (de) n, Wandelwort n, Tuwort (de) n, Tunwort (de) n, Aussagewort (de)

  Middle High German: wort

  Middle High German / Early New High German: wort

  Old High German: wort

• Greek: ρήμα (el) n (ríma)

  Ancient Greek: ῥῆμα n (rhêma)

• Greenlandic: oqaluut
• Gujarati: ક્રિયાપદ (kriyāpad)
• Hausa: fi'ili
• Hawaiian: haʻina
• Hebrew: פועל / פֹּעַל (he) (pó'al)
• Hindi: क्रिया (hi) f (kriyā), क्रियापद (hi) m (kriyāpad) (dated)
• Hungarian: ige (hu)
• Hunsrik: please add this translation if you can
• Icelandic: sagnorð (is) n, sögn (is) f
• Ido: verbo (io)
• Igbo: ngwaa (ig)
• Indonesian: kata kerja (id), verba (id)
• Ingrian: please add this translation if you can
• Interlingua: verbo (ia)
• Irish: briathar (ga) m
• Italian: verbo (it) m
• Japanese: 動詞 (ja) (dōshi)
• Javanese: kriyo
• Kabyle: amyag m
• Kalmyk: үүлдәгч (üüldägç)
• Kannada: ಕ್ರಿಯಾಪದ (kn) (kriyāpada)
• Kapampangan: pangdiua, paglindayug
• Kashmiri: کرٛاوُت (krāvut)
• Kashubian: czasnik m
• Kazakh: етістік (etistik)
• Khmer: កិរិយាស័ព្ទ (keriyaasap), កិរិយា (km) (keriyaa)
• Korean: 동사(動詞) (ko) (dongsa)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: کردار (kirdar)

  Northern Kurdish: lêker (ku), eylem (ku)

• Kyrgyz: этиш (ky) (etiş)
• Lao: ຄຳກຳມະ (lo) (kham kam ma), ກິລິຍາ (ki li nyā)
• Latin: verbum (la) n, verbum temporale n
• Latvian: darbības vārds (lv) m, verbs (lv) m, norisenis m (dated)
• Ligurian: vèrbo m
• Limburgish: wèrkwaord (li) n, vèrb n
• Lingala: likelelo
• Lithuanian: veiksmažodis (lt) m
• Lombard: please add this translation if you can
• Low German:

  German Low German: Doonwoard, Verb (nds)

• Macedonian: гла́гол m (glágol)
• Malay: kata kerja (ms)
• Malayalam: ക്രിയ (ml) (kriya)
• Maltese: verb (mt)
• Manipuri:

  Bishnupriya Manipuri: please add this translation if you can

• Māori: kupumahi (mi), tūmahi
• Marathi: क्रियापद (kriyāpad)
• Middle English: verbe
• Mirandese: berbo m
• Mon: please add this translation if you can
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: үйл үг (mn) (üil üg)

  Mongolian script: ᠦᠢᠯᠡ
  ᠦᠭᠡ (üyile üge)

• Navajo: áhátʼíinii
• Neapolitan: please add this translation if you can
• Nepali: क्रिया (ne) (kriyā)
• Newar: यासु (yāsu)
• Nheengatu: please add this translation if you can
• Norman: vèrbe m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: verb (no) n

  Nynorsk: verb (nn) n, gjerningsord (nn) n

• Occitan: vèrb (oc) m
• Odia: କ୍ରିୟା (or) (kriyā)
• Ojibwe: doodamowi-ikidowin
• Old English: word (ang) n
• Ossetian: мивдисӕг (mivdisæg)
• Pali: please add this translation if you can
• Pannonian Rusyn: дїєслово n (djijeslovo), (obsolete) часовнїк m inan (časovnjik)
• Pashto: فعل (ps) m (fe'l)
• Persian:

  Dari: فِعْل (fi'l)

  Iranian Persian: فِعْل (fe'l)

• Piedmontese: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: czasownik (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: verbo (pt) m
• Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi: ਕਿਰਿਆ m (kiriā)

• Quechua: ruray rimana
• Rakhine: please add this translation if you can
• Rohingya: please add this translation if you can
• Romagnol: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: verb (ro) n
• Russian: глаго́л (ru) m (glagól)
• Rwanda-Rundi: please add this translation if you can
• Sami:

  Northern Sami: vearba

  Southern Sami: darjomebaakoe, veerbe

• Samogitian: veikruodis
• Sanskrit: क्रिया (sa) f (kriyā), क्रियापद (sa) n (kriyāpada)
• Scots: verb
• Scottish Gaelic: gnìomhair
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: гла̏гол m

  Latin: glȁgol (sh) m

• Sicilian: verbu (scn) m
• Sindhi: please add this translation if you can
• Sinhalese: ක්රියා පද (kriyā pada), ක්රියාව (kriyāwa)
• Slovak: sloveso (sk) n
• Slovene: glagol (sl) m
• Somali: fal
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: werb m

  Upper Sorbian: werb m, słowjeso n

• Spanish: verbo (es) m
• Sundanese: kecap pagawéan
• Swahili: kitenzi (sw)
• Swazi: sento (ss)
• Swedish: verb (sv) n, handlingsord n, syssleord n
• Sylheti: please add this translation if you can
• Tagalog: pandiwa (tl)
• Tajik: феъл (tg) (fe'l)
• Tamil: வினைச்சொல் (ta) (viṉaiccol), வினை (ta) (viṉai)
• Tatar: фигыль (tt) (fiğel)
• Telugu: క్రియ (te) (kriya)
• Thai: คำกริยา (th), กริยา (th) (grì-yaa)
• Tibetan: བྱ་ཚིག (bya tshig), ལས་ཚིག (las tshig)
• Tigrinya: ግሲ (gəsi)
• Turkish: fiil (tr), eylem (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: فعل (fil, fiil)

• Turkmen: işlik (tk)
• Udmurt: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: дієсло́во (uk) n (dijeslóvo)
• Urdu: فِعْل m (fi'l)
• Uyghur: پېئىل (pë'il)
• Uzbek: fe'l (uz)
• Venetan: verbo m
• Vietnamese: động từ (vi) (動詞)
• Volapük: värb (vo)
• Walloon: viebe (wa) m
• Welsh: berf (cy) f
• Wolaytta: peeshuwa
• Wolof: please add this translation if you can
• Xhosa: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: ווערב (yi) m (verb), צײַטוואָרט n (tsaytvort)
• Yoruba: ọ̀rọ̀-ìṣe
• Zazaki: fiil (diq), kar (diq), wextqıse (diq) m
• Zhuang: dungswz
• Zulu: isenzo (zu) class 7/8

Verb

verb (third-person singular simple present verbs, present participle verbing, simple past and past participle verbed)

1. (transitive, nonstandard, colloquial) To use any word that is or was not a verb (especially a noun) as if it were a verb.
   • a. 1981 Feb 22, unknown Guardian editor as quoted by William Safire, On Language, in New York Times, pSM3

     Haig, in congressional hearings before his confirmatory, paradoxed his auditioners by abnormalling his responds so that verbs were nouned, nouns verbed and adjectives adverbised. He techniqued a new way to vocabulary his thoughts so as to informationally uncertain anybody listening about what he had actually implicationed... .

   • 1993 January 25, Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes:

     I like to verb words.... I take nouns and adjectives and use them as verbs. Remember when "access" was a thing? Now it's something you DO. It got verbed. Verbing weirds language.

   • 1997, David. F. Griffiths, Desmond J. Higham, learning LAT_EX, page 8:

     Nouns should never be verbed.

   • 2005 October 5, Jeffrey Mattison, “Letters”, in The Christian Science Monitor, page 8:

     In English, verbing nouns is okay

   • 2011 September 1, Harry Pearson, “London 2012 can legacy by verbing the noun”, in The Guardian‎^[2], archived from the original on 22 September 2024:

     Records have been broken, races have been dedicated, dreams have been dreamed, starts have been falsed and nouns have been verbed.

2. (linguistics, social sciences) Used as a placeholder for any verb.
   • 1946, Rand Corporation, The Rand Paper Series:

     For example, one-part versions of the proposition "The doctor pursued the lawyer" were "The doctor verbed the object," ...

   • 1964, Journal of Mathematical Psychology:

     Each sentence had the same basic structure: The subject transitive verbed the object who intransitive verbed in the location.

   • 1998, Marilyn A. Walker, Aravind Krishna Joshi, Centering Theory in Discourse:

     The sentence frame was Dan verbed Ben approaching the store. This sentence frame was followed in all cases by He went inside.

Conjugation

Conjugation of verb

infinitive	(to) verb
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	verb	verbed
2nd-person singular	verb, verbest†	verbed, verbedst†
3rd-person singular	verbs, verbeth†	verbed
plural	verb
subjunctive	verb	verbed
imperative	verb	—
participles	verbing	verbed

^† Archaic or obsolete.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:verb.

See also

• copula
• workword

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

Etymology 2

Clipping of reverb.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /vɜːb/
• (US) IPA^(key): /vɝb/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /vəɹb/, [vɚ(ɹ)b]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)b

Noun

verb (plural verbs)

1. (music) Reverb.

Anagrams

• brev

Breton

Etymology

From Latin verbum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɛrp/

Noun

verb m (plural verboù)

1. (grammar) verb

Derived terms

• adverb
• verb-skoazell

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin verbum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [ˈbe̞rp]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈvɛrp]
• IPA^(key): (Central, Northwestern) [ˈbɛrp]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈvɛɾp]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

Noun

verb m (plural verbs)

1. verb

Derived terms

• verb modal

Related terms

• verba
• verbal

Further reading

• “verb”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin verbum.

Noun

verb n (definite singular verbet, indefinite plural verb or verber, definite plural verba or verbene)

1. (grammar) verb

Derived terms

• verbbøying

References

• “verb” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin verbum.

Noun

verb n (definite singular verbet, indefinite plural verb, definite plural verba)

1. (grammar) verb

Derived terms

• verbbøying

References

• “verb” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Romanian

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *werh₁-

Proto-Indo-European *werdʰom

Proto-Italic *werðom

▲

Ancient Greek ῥῆμᾰ (rhêmă)sl.

Latin verbumder.

Romanian verb

Derived from Latin verbum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [verb]

Noun

verb n (plural verbe)

1. verb

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	verb	verbul	verbe	verbele
genitive-dative	verb	verbului	verbe	verbelor
vocative	verbule		verbelor

Swedish

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

verb n

1. (grammar) verb

Declension

Declension of verb

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	verb	verbs
	definite	verbet	verbets
plural	indefinite	verb	verbs
	definite	verben	verbens

Synonyms

• kraftord

Hyponyms

• hjälpverb

Related terms

• verba
• verbal
• verbatim
• verbböjning
• verbform
• verbändelse

Descendants

• → Finnish: verbi
• → Ingrian: verbi

References

• “verb”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

Anagrams

• brev

Veps

Etymology

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

Noun

verb

1. verb

Inflection

Inflection of verb (inflection type 5/sana)
nominative sing.	verb
genitive sing.	verban
partitive sing.	verbad
partitive plur.	verboid
	singular	plural
nominative	verb	verbad
accusative	verban	verbad
genitive	verban	verboiden
partitive	verbad	verboid
essive-instructive	verban	verboin
translative	verbaks	verboikš
inessive	verbas	verboiš
elative	verbaspäi	verboišpäi
illative	verbaha	verboihe
adessive	verbal	verboil
ablative	verbalpäi	verboilpäi
allative	verbale	verboile
abessive	verbata	verboita
comitative	verbanke	verboidenke
prolative	verbadme	verboidme
approximative I	verbanno	verboidenno
approximative II	verbannoks	verboidennoks
egressive	verbannopäi	verboidennopäi
terminative I	verbahasai	verboihesai
terminative II	verbalesai	verboilesai
terminative III	verbassai	—
additive I	verbahapäi	verboihepäi
additive II	verbalepäi	verboilepäi

References

• Zajceva, N. G.; Mullonen, M. I. (2007), “глагол”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary]‎^[3], Petrozavodsk: Periodika