Adjacent Words

Verbal definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

VERB'AL, a. [L. verbalis.]
1. Spoken; expressed to the ear in words; not written; as a verbal message; a verbal contract; verbal testimony.
2. Oral; uttered by the mouth.
3. Consisting in mere words; as a verbal reward.
4. Respecting words only; as a verbal dispute.
5. Minutely exact in words, or attending to words only; as a verbal critic.
6. Literal; having word answering to word; as a verbal translation.
7. In grammar, derived from a verb; as a verbal noun.
8. Verbose; abounding with words. [Not in use.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: communicated in the form of words; "verbal imagery"; "a verbal protest"
2: of or relating to or formed from words in general; "verbal ability"
3: of or relating to or formed from a verb; "verbal adjectives like `running' in `hot and cold running water'"
4: relating to or having facility in the use of words; "a good poet is a verbal artist"; "a merely verbal writer who sacrifices content to sound"; "verbal aptitude" [ant: mathematical, numerical]
5: expressed in spoken words; "a verbal contract"
6: prolix; "you put me to forget a lady's manners by being so verbal"- Shakespeare

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English verbale, from Late Latin verbalis, from Latin verbum word Date: 15th century 1. a. of, relating to, or consisting of words <verbal instructions> b. of, relating to, or involving words rather than meaning or substance <a consistency that is merely verbal and scholastic — B. N. Cardozo> c. consisting of or using words only and not involving action <verbal abuse> 2. of, relating to, or formed from a verb <a verbal adjective> 3. spoken rather than written <a verbal contract> 4. verbatim, word-for-word <a verbal translation> 5. of or relating to facility in the use and comprehension of words <verbal aptitude> • verbally adverb II. noun Date: 1530 a word that combines characteristics of a verb with those of a noun or adjective — compare gerund, infinitive, participle

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj., n., & v. --adj. 1 of or concerned with words (made a verbal distinction). 2 oral, not written (gave a verbal statement). 3 Gram. of or in the nature of a verb (verbal inflections). 4 literal (a verbal translation). 5 talkative, articulate. --n. 1 Gram. a a verbal noun. b a word or words functioning as a verb. 2 sl. a verbal statement, esp. one made to the police. 3 sl. an insult; abuse (gave them the verbal). --v.tr. (verballed, verballing) Brit. sl. attribute a damaging statement to (a suspect). Phrases and idioms: verbal noun Gram. a noun formed as an inflection of a verb and partly sharing its constructions (e.g. smoking in smoking is forbidden: see -ING(1)). Derivatives: verbally adv. Etymology: ME f. F verbal or LL verbalis (as VERB)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Verbal Ver"bal, n. (Gram.) A noun derived from a verb.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Verbal Ver"bal, a. [F., fr. L. verbalis. See Verb.] 1. Expressed in words, whether spoken or written, but commonly in spoken words; hence, spoken; oral; not written; as, a verbal contract; verbal testimony. Made she no verbal question? --Shak. We subjoin an engraving . . . which will give the reader a far better notion of the structure than any verbal description could convey to the mind. --Mayhew. 2. Consisting in, or having to do with, words only; dealing with words rather than with the ideas intended to be conveyed; as, a verbal critic; a verbal change. And loses, though but verbal, his reward. --Milton. Mere verbal refinements, instead of substantial knowledge. --Whewell. 3. Having word answering to word; word for word; literal; as, a verbal translation. 4. Abounding with words; verbose. [Obs.] --Shak. 5. (Gram.) Of or pertaining to a verb; as, a verbal group; derived directly from a verb; as, a verbal noun; used in forming verbs; as, a verbal prefix. Verbal inspiration. See under Inspiration. Verbal noun (Gram.), a noun derived directly from a verb or verb stem; a verbal. The term is specifically applied to infinitives, and nouns ending in -ing, esp. to the latter. See Gerund, and -ing, 2. See also, Infinitive mood, under Infinitive.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. You use verbal to indicate that something is expressed in speech rather than in writing or action. They were jostled and subjected to a torrent of verbal abuse... We have a verbal agreement with her... ADJ: usu ADJ n • verbally Teachers were threatened with kitchen knives, physically assaulted and verbally abused... ADV 2. You use verbal to indicate that something is connected with words and the use of words. The test has scores for verbal skills, mathematical skills, and abstract reasoning skills... ADJ: ADJ n 3. In grammar, verbal means relating to a verb. ...a verbal noun. ADJ: usu ADJ n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Oral, spoken, unwritten, parol, nuncupative, expressed in words. 2. As to words, about words, technical. 3. Literal, word for word. 4. Derived from a verb.

Moby Thesaurus

adjectival, adverbial, answering, articulated, attributive, authentic, bona fide, candid, card-carrying, colloquial, communicating, communicational, communional, conjunctive, conversational, copulative, correct, dinkum, enunciated, expressed, following the letter, formal, functional, genuine, glossematic, good, grammatic, honest, honest-to-God, iconic, inartificial, interacting, interactional, interactive, intercommunicational, intercommunicative, intercommunional, interresponsive, interrogative, interrogatory, intransitive, lawful, legitimate, lexemic, lexical, lifelike, lingual, linguistic, linking, literal, morphemic, natural, naturalistic, nominal, nuncupative, oral, original, parol, participial, phrasal, postpositional, prepositional, pronominal, pronounced, pure, questioning, real, realistic, responsive, rightful, said, semantic, semantological, semasiological, sememic, semiotic, simon-pure, simple, sincere, sounded, speech, spoken, sterling, structural, substantive, sure-enough, symbolic, syntactic, tagmemic, telepathic, traditional, transitive, transmissional, true to life, true to nature, true to reality, unadulterated, unaffected, unassumed, unassuming, uncolored, unconcocted, uncopied, uncounterfeited, undisguised, undisguising, undistorted, unexaggerated, unfabricated, unfanciful, unfeigned, unfeigning, unfictitious, unflattering, unimagined, unimitated, uninvented, unpretended, unpretending, unqualified, unromantic, unsimulated, unspecious, unsynthetic, unvarnished, unwritten, uttered, verbatim, veridical, verisimilar, viva voce, vocabular, vocabulary, vocal, vocalized, voiced, voiceful, word, word-for-word, word-of-mouth