Definition:
The part of speech (or word class) that serves to connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. See also:
- Coordinating Conjunction
- Subordinating Conjunction
- Correlative Conjunction
- Conjunctive Adverb
- Disjunction
- Coordinating Words, Phrases, and Clauses
- Sentence Building With Coordinators
- "But"--It's a Wonderful Word
- Oxford Comma
Etymology:
From the Greek, "joining"Examples and Observations:
- "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."
(George Bernard Shaw) - "Both the cockroach and the bird would get along very well without us, although the cockroach would miss us most."
(Joseph Wood Krutch) - "It is the good or bad Use of Conjunction, that constitutes the Essence of a good or bad Stile. They render the Discourse more smooth and fluent. They are the helpmates of Reason in arguing, relating and putting the other Parts of Speech in due order."
(Daniel Duncan, A New English Grammar, 1731) - "I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy."
(Marie Curie) - "There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody."
(Adlai Stevenson) - "As it happens I am in Death Valley, in a room at the Enterprise Motel and Trailer Park, and it is July, and it is hot. In fact it is 119 degrees. I cannot seem to make the air conditioner work, but there is a small refrigerator, and I can wrap ice cubes in a towel and hold them against the small of my back."
(Joan Didion, "On Morality") - "There's a dark side to each and every human soul. We wish we were Obi-Wan Kenobi, and for the most part we are, but there's a little Darth Vadar in all of us."
(Chris Stevens, Northern Exposure) - "I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it."
(Jack Handy, Deep Thoughts)
Pronunciation: cun-JUNK-shun
Also Known As: connective
