FUNCTION WORD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does function word mean? 

• FUNCTION WORD (noun)
  The noun FUNCTION WORD has 1 sense:

1. a word that is uninflected and serves a grammatical function but has little identifiable meaning

  Familiarity information: FUNCTION WORD used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FUNCTION WORD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A word that is uninflected and serves a grammatical function but has little identifiable meaning

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

closed-class word; function word

Hypernyms ("function word" is a kind of...):

word (a unit of language that native speakers can identify)

Meronyms (parts of "function word"):

grammatical meaning (the meaning of a word that depends on its role in a sentence; varies with inflectional form)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "function word"):

determinative; determiner (one of a limited class of noun modifiers that determine the referents of noun phrases)

preposition (a function word that combines with a noun or pronoun or noun phrase to form a prepositional phrase that can have an adverbial or adjectival relation to some other word)

pronoun (a function word that is used in place of a noun or noun phrase)

conjunction; conjunctive; connective; continuative (an uninflected function word that serves to conjoin words or phrases or clauses or sentences)

particle (a function word that can be used in English to form phrasal verbs)