the study of the rules for the formation of grammatical sentences in a language.
the study of the patterns of formation of sentences and phrases from words.
the rules or patterns so studied: English syntax.
a presentation of these: a syntax of English.
an instance of these: the syntax of a sentence.
Logic.
that branch of modern logic that studies the various kinds of signs that occur in a system and the possible arrangements of those signs, complete abstraction being made of the meaning of the signs.
the outcome of such a study when directed upon a specified language.
a system or orderly arrangement.
Computers. the grammatical rules and structural patterns governing the ordered use of appropriate words and symbols for issuing commands, writing code, etc., in a particular software application or programming language.
Origin of syntax
1565–75; short for earlier syntaxis<Late Latin <Greek sýntaxis an arranging in order, equivalent to syntag- (see syntactic) + -sis-sis
The sequence in which words are put together to form sentences. In English, the usual sequence is subject, verb, and object.
notes for syntax
Syntactic languages, such as English, use word order to indicate word relationships. Inflected languages (see inflection), such as Greek and Latin, use word endings and other inflections to indicate relationships.