Definition:
A dependent clause used as an adjective within a sentence. It normally begins with a relative pronoun--a word that relates the clause to a preceding word or phrase. Also known as a relative clause. See also:
- Subordination with Adjective Clauses
- Relative Pronouns and Adjective Clauses
- Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Adjective Clauses
- Sentence Building with Adjective Clauses
Examples:
- "He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead."
(Albert Einstein) - "Creatures whose mainspring is curiosity enjoy the accumulating of facts far more than the pausing at times to reflect on those facts."
(Clarence Day) - "Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh."
(W. H. Auden) - "Love, which was once believed to contain the Answer, we now know to be nothing more than an inherited behavior pattern."
(James Thurber) - "The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
(Martin Luther King, Jr.) - "The IRS spends God knows how much of your tax money on these toll-free information hot lines staffed by IRS employees, whose idea of a dynamite tax tip is that you should print neatly."
(Dave Barry) - "On I trudged, past the carefully roped-off breeding grounds of terns, which chirruped a warning overhead."
(Will Self, "A Real Cliff Hanger," 2008) - "The book was a life of Brahms, which had been standing askew on one of the shelves here and which the dampness had left permanently misshapen."
(David Markson, Wittgenstein's Mistress, 1988) - "The man who first abused his fellows with swear words, instead of bashing their brains out with a club, should be counted among those who laid the foundations of civilization."
(John Cohen, 1965)
Also Known As: relative clause, adjectival clause
