finite verb

[ fahy-nahyt vurb ]

noun

, Grammar.

1. a verb form that distinguishes person, number, and tense, as well as mood or aspect: in She works from home, the verb works indicates a third-person singular subject ( she ), present tense, and indicative mood, the mood used for ordinary statements and questions about facts. Compare infinitive ( def 1a ).

Word History and Origins

Origin of finite verb¹

First recorded in 1785–95

Example Sentences

He resumes the exhortation in a form slightly changed and with rising emphasis, passing from the participle to the finite verb: “And take the helmet of salvation.”

From Project Gutenberg

Using these as auxiliaries the finite verb makes a whole series of periphrastic tenses.

From Project Gutenberg

As for the verb, Sweet has well said that “the really characteristic feature of the English finite verb is its inability to stand alone without a pronominal prefix.”

From Project Gutenberg

When the question lies between a participle and a finite verb in the construction of a sentence, the looseness of the Egyptian syntax will seldom afford any clue to the reading which the translator had before him.

From Project Gutenberg

Translation.—This sentence contains only one finite verb, the principal one.

From Project Gutenberg