adjective

Definition:

The part of speech (or word class) that modifies a noun or a pronoun. Adjective forms: positive, comparative, superlative. Adjective: adjectival.
See also:

• Absolute Adjective
• Attributive Adjective
• Compound Adjective
• Demonstrative Adjective
• Predicative Adjective
• Gradability
• Adding Adjectives and Adverbs
• Sentence Building with Adjectives

Etymology:

From the Latin, "to add" and "to throw"

Observations:

• "The adjective is the enemy of the noun."
  (Voltaire)



• "I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English--it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice."
  (Mark Twain)



• "In his 2002 memorial eulogy to former cabinet minister Barbara Castle, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw recalled her remark, "Bugger the adjectives. It's the nouns and verbs people want."
  (Ned Halley, Dictionary of Modern English Grammar, Wordsworth, 2005)



• "The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech."
  (Clifton Fadiman)

Examples:

• "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." (Benjamin Franklin)



• "He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise."
  (Voltaire)



• "All things bright and beautiful,
  All creatures great and small.
  (Cecil Frances Alexander)



• "He was a tall man with an astonishing and somehow elegant curvature of the spine, formed by an enlarged lower abdomen, which he carried in a stately and contented way, as if it contained money and securities."
  (John Cheever)

Pronunciation: ADD-jek-tiv