Grammar. Any of a set of words (sometimes treated as a minor part of speech and sometimes including affixes) that are typically short and…

Grammar. A particle. Obsolete. rare.

A word which cannot be used by itself as a term, but only in collocation with another word or words: e.g. a sign of quantity (as all, some, no)…

Grammar. The fact or quality of being a grammatical agent (agent, n.1 1c).

a word which has no lexical meaning but serves a grammatical function; a function word; opposed to full word n. adj. at full, adj. n.2adv.…

A symbolic word (see sense A. 1b above). rare.

a word serving the function of an inflection; also gen., a word expressing a formal or grammatical feature; a function word; = functor, n. 3.

= function word n. at function, n. compounds.

The French preposition de, used as a prefix of nobility in personal names.

Originally, in the work of American philosopher C. S. Peirce (1839–1914): a sign which functions as, or is equivalent to, a grammatical sentence…

= structural word n. at structural, adj. compounds.

a word whose primary purpose is to contribute to the syntax rather than the meaning of a sentence.

Linguistics. (a) A form-word or function word (see form, n. compounds 1, function word n. at function, n. compounds); (b) the auxiliary verb in a…

a word of the type which gives logical context or form to a proposition but which, by itself, is non-representational and without meaning (see quot…

(See quot. 1966.) Cf. empty word n. at empty, adj. n.compounds 2.

Philosophy. In J. L. Austin's theory of speech acts: the sense or meaning of a sentence, etc., as used on a particular occasion; an utterance. Cf…

Linguistics. A word or affix whose primary purpose is to contribute to the syntax rather than the meaning of a sentence; = function word n. at fun…