grammatical
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to grammar.
grammatical analysis.
-
conforming to standard usage.
grammatical speech.
adjective
-
of or relating to grammar
-
(of a sentence) well formed; regarded as correct and acceptable by native speakers of the language
Other Word Forms
- antigrammatical adjective
- antigrammatically adverb
- antigrammaticalness noun
- grammatically adverb
- grammaticalness noun
- hypergrammatical adjective
- hypergrammatically adverb
- hypergrammaticalness noun
Etymology
Origin of grammatical
1520–30; < Latin grammatic ( us ) (< Greek grammatikós knowing one's letters, equivalent to grammat-, stem of grámma letter + -ikos -ic ) + -al 1
Explanation
If your know-it-all friend advises you not to say, "Me and John went...," she is giving you grammatical advice. In other words, she's correcting your terrible grammar. (BTW, it should be "John and I...") The adjective grammatical comes up most often in English classes, since it describes anything having to do with parts of speech, syntax, and other elements of a well-written sentence. The Latin root word is grammaticalis, meaning "of a scholar," which in turn comes from the word grammaticus, "pertaining to grammar." If you're an authority on the English language, you can feel free to describe yourself as a grammatical scholar.
Vocabulary lists containing grammatical
A Lesson Before Dying
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
SHSAT: Language of the Test
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
gram
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The expected grammatical signals appear in the wrong order, so the brain cannot easily build meaning from the sequence.
From Science Daily • Feb. 20, 2026
The grammatical solecism of the title isn’t the only vaguely—or not so vaguely—irksome element of “The Disappear,” a new play written and directed by Erica Schmidt being presented at the Minetta Lane Theatre.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026
One of the reasons Yautja has no grammatical gender is because that was most practical.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 10, 2025
For one thing, such groups tend to have intellectual underpinning which means they write grammatical and properly spelled French.
From BBC • Apr. 17, 2025
This preposing avoids the monotony of a long string of similar sentences, even though herons are the grammatical subjects of every one.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
