Search over 1.4 million articles by over 600 experts
  1. Home
  2. Education
  3. Grammar & Composition

More from About.com

Browse Topics A-Z

"misplaced modifier"

By Richard Nordquist, About.com

Definition:

Words, phrases, or clauses that do not clearly relate to the word they are intended to modify. See also squinting modifier.

Examples:

  • "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know."
    (Groucho Marx)


  • "Burk is headquartered in a small room on the tenth floor of an aging Washington office building; she is not paid by the council, and her only full-time paid employee is a pleasant young woman with a nose ring named Rebecca, who sits at the front desk."
    (reprinted in The New Yorker)


  • "They just said it's going to rain on the radio."
    ("Tiger" comic strip)


  • "Hugh Jackman donated a pair of jeans to a charity that sold for over $20,000."


  • "You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian composers, artists, and writers are buried daily, except on Thursdays."


  • "Mr. Clinton acknowledged the role played by the men who subdued the gunman when he spoke at a dinner on Saturday night."
    (The New York Times)


  • "Historians have been kept guessing over claims [that] Dr James Barry, Inspector General of Military Hospitals, was in fact a woman for more than 140 years."
    (The Daily Telegraph, March 5, 2008)


  • "Plastic bags are a favorite of grocers because of their price, about 2 cents per bag compared to 5 cents for paper. Used widely since the 1970s, environmentalists now estimate between 500 billion to a trillion bags are produced annually worldwide."
    (Associated Press, "Environmental Concerns Force Grocers, Bag Makers to Rethink the Plastic Bag," Savannah Morning News, January 30, 2008)

Pronunciation: MIS-plast MOD-i-FI-er

  1. Home
  2. Education
  3. Grammar & Composition

©2008 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.