part of speech

[ pahrt uhv speech ]

noun

, Grammar.

1. any of the classes into which words in some languages, as Latin and English, have traditionally been divided on the basis of their meaning, form, or syntactic function, as, in English, noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.

part of speech

noun

1. a class of words sharing important syntactic or semantic features; a group of words in a language that may occur in similar positions or fulfil similar functions in a sentence. The chief parts of speech in English are noun, pronoun, adjective, determiner, adverb, verb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection POS

Word History and Origins

Origin of part of speech¹

First recorded in 1500–10

Example Sentences

But these terms had not morphed into abstract symbols, nor did they spread to every other part of speech.

From Scientific American

He asked for all the word’s information — its definition, part of speech, orthography, use in a sentence — but he didn’t need it, evidenced by a slight smile as he spoke.

From New York Times

Before panelists can debate the words picked for the bee, they need to hear each word and its language of origin, part of speech, definition and exemplary sentence read aloud.

From Washington Times

What is the mechanism for, say, changing one part of speech into another?

From Salon

Combine and define confine + ment.—What other part of speech than a verb is "confine"? Ans.

From Literature