Definition:
A word, phrase, or clause that limits or restricts the meaning of the element it modifies while providing information essential to the meaning of the sentence. A restrictive element is not set off with commas. Contrast with nonrestrictive element. See also: Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Adjective Clauses.
Examples:
- "A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way."
(Mark Twain) - "A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."
(Mark Twain) - "A family with the wrong members in control; that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase."
(George Orwell) - "A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child."
(H. L. Mencken) - "It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf."
(H. L. Mencken) - "Men are the only animals that devote themselves, day in and day out, to making one another unhappy."
(H. L. Mencken) - "A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers."
(H. L. Mencken)
Also Known As: restrictive modifier, essential phrase, defining element
