Questions tagged [adjectives]
Adjectives are just one of several different types of noun modifiers, typically used to premodify or describe a noun. Do not confuse adjectives with nouns used attributively to modify other nouns. Adjectives have comparative and superlative degrees, can be used as predicate adjectives in copulae, and can themselves be modified by intensifiers and adverbs but not by other adjectives. Nouns in attribution fail all those tests.
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Algorithm vs algorithmic
I encountered an expression Improve my algorithm skills. For me algorithm skills sounds unnatural and should be algorithmic skills or become better at algorithms. After short googling, I found few ...
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Adjective for "lacking/losing/wanting of elasticity/stretchiness after too much stretching" to describe originally elastic/stretchy things?
When certain elastic or stretchy objects are overstretched, especially in prolonged periods, they may lose elasticity altogether and cannot return to their unstretched state. What would be an ...
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Confused About Where 'Thin/Fat' Fit Into The Royal Order Of Adjectives?
I know that you're meant to order adjectives based on their type (quantity, opinion, size... etc.), but what type do 'fat' and 'thin' fall into? Are they size or shape? I feel as though I can just as ...
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so adjective as to-infinitive
I searched everywhere for an explanation about this construct but couldn't find.
The construct is: "so adjective as to-infinitive".
For example: "the kid was so brave as to amaze all ...
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What is a metaphor or adjective to describe something that has gone through changes and will never be the same again?
I've been thinking about this for an hour and browsing for a definition, but nothing has come up.
It would be great if someone can give me something with a meaning similar to what I'm asking for.
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Citizenship name order
If I'm a dual citizenship holder, which one comes first? Is there an ordering to it?
For example, if I receive a Canadian citizenship and I hold an Italian citizenship, am I Italian-Canadian or ...
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Strict adjective for "in a different country, not your own", for use before a noun (attributive, not predicate), that's not "overseas"?
What would be a usable alternative to overseas, in the very strict sense of "living in a country not your own"?
It is strange that the most common attributive adjective for this notion is ...
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What is a word for someone who sees themself as ‘unlovable’?
I’m doing some character work and I was wondering if anyone could find a word that means ‘someone who feels unlovable’ or ‘believes themself unworthy of having their love returned’.
I'm looking for ...
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A long, obscure word with the meaning "abstruse, erudite, (of a text) difficult"
I have forgotten a particular word. It's very rare, but not so rare that it doesn't appear in online dictionaries—for instance, it appeared in Google Search's dedicated dictionary widget with its ...
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What is the animal adjective relating to tegu lizards (salvatorine, tupinambine etc.)?
If I were to go on a "corvine extermination expedition," we would understand an intent to exterminate crows, of genus corvus. The invasive tegu lizards in Florida are subject to such ...
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What's 'it' in the sentence 'it is worth it'? [duplicate]
Rebooting your career is definitely worth it.
Actually, my question is not specific to this sentence. I don't get the word it in the use of worth in general as in this one:
It is worth it.
If it ...
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Idiom for spending too much time on a single topic? [duplicate]
Is there an idiom (or just an adjective) for spending too much time on a topic? What about saying the same thing over and over again in different ways?
Example:
"We don't need to keep talking ...
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Is "in two-yearly intervals" a proper construction?
There's this construction, "x-yearly intervals", in a textbook I found.
The graph shows Europe's jay population from 1996-2004 at two-yearly intervals.
Shouldn't it be "two-year ...
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Word for tasks that don’t need attention [duplicate]
Im looking for the word for doing a task, that can be done without giving a lot of attention to it. Your mind can do something else while doing the task.
The example was doing the dishes.
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Can ''anecdote'' be synonymous with ''detail'' or ''small point''? [closed]
As in, would it be correct to write something like:
It is simply anecdotal that I didn't finish college?
Further, can it be used in this sense in the form of a question? E.g.,
This is only an ...
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Does "increasingly larger" imply an increasing rate of growth?
We often say things become "increasingly larger/bigger", like "The problem of [...] is becoming an increasingly larger issue". I was wondering if the addition of the word "...
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Is 'a deceiving look’ grammatically correct?
Is ‘a deceiving look’ grammatically sound? Cambridge dictionary says that ‘deceiving’ is not an adjective, deceitful and deceptive are, but the given example seems fine to me. I see the word ‘...
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Negligible at extreme
Can negligible be used to describe something which has no significance at all?
For example, would the condition "we will ignore this requirement if the decimal value is negligible" also ...
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“a small number of” as an adjective
The official Australian government page https://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/national-threat-level/current-national-terrorism-threat-level features the following quote.
This is because there are a ...
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Term for an adjective that is part of a name
What is or is there a term for an adjective that is part of a name? For example Big John, Grand Canyon - are Big, Grand adjectives, just part of the name, or something else?
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What is the term for words such as Turkish, American, Canadian, Mexican, Polish, etc.?
Is there a word/term that relates to those? Usage examples of the words in the title:
Turkish cuisine
American passport
Canadian insignia
Mexican beadwork
Polish calculator
Use of this mystery word/...
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Word that means the first approach to a problem a reasonable person would likely consider
I'm looking for a wonderfully useful adjective I've come across several times but have since forgotten.
It was used in the context of solving a difficult problem (think puzzle, math, or science) and ...
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Predicates of apparent temperature
Predicates of apparent temperature like cool, warm, hot, cold, etc., can express both states of things or people (1b) and (more generally) the state of the weather (1b).
(1a) It is now finally cool, ...
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What's the term for someone who is capable of producing a desired outcome but who just won't do it [closed]
What would be a descriptive word, term, or adjective for a person who has the knowledge, skills and ability to achieve a desired goal (like getting to work on time, or paying off a small debt), but ...
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How to use formal adjectives correctly? [duplicate]
My alma mater is officially called "Financial University", but periodically when I translate the text into google translate, it offers me the spelling "University of Finance" (The ...
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What do I need to use adjective 'active selected' or adverb 'actively selected'?
In my commit message, I wrote something like:
-disabled search button if there is no active selected filter
and I got the following warning from my Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
A. Make ...
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I believe a sentence is vague/confusing and I've been told it's perfectly clear and I disagree. Why am I technically right/wrong/neither?
I claimed the sentence was confusing and unclear and was told "No. Read it again, there's no vagueness".
I feel like there is an explanation for why this is actually technically confusing/...
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What adjective describes a material which transmits little or no light? [duplicate]
I am trying to search online for materials with specific properties, including the ability to block light. I thought that opaque was the appropriate term for this, but I am finding that in common ...
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Is "before" also an adjective? [duplicate]
I searched "define before" in Google and found out "before" is not listed as an adjective in most dictionaries.
Google's built-in dictionary, which is one of the Oxford ...
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“Upset”: different stress pattern for attributive and predicative use
Today I came across an English adjective which has one stress pattern when used predicatively: her cat died: she's very up‵set, and the other when used attributively: he won't be coming: he has an ‵...
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What is the meaning of "pale and cold"? noun or adjective? [closed]
...Soon the sharpened features, and sunken eye, and fallen jaw, pale and cold, bearing the manifest impress of death's signet, began to glow with returning animation....
The source: Leith in the time ...
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The differences between the word "contradictory" and "ambivalent"? [closed]
Correct me if wrong, I think both of the words are adjectives describing having two opposite characteristics at the same time.
To my understanding, while ambivalent is more of a psychological term or ...
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One-syllable word/adjective for 'receives little attention' [closed]
I want to find a one-syllable adjective that means 'receives little attention' / 'receives less attention'.
For example, the sentence 'Paralympics usually receives less attention than the Olympics.' ...
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Can "due" meaning "owed" be used without "to" in AmE? e.g. "the recognition which was due her"
Encountered the following in a text I'm proofreading.
...tries to salvage the dignity due the situation
My instinct is to correct this to
...tries to salvage the dignity due to the situation
but ...
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Adjective for the Weather [duplicate]
I'm looking for a word which functions as an adjective for weather. So I want to say something like "He had weather concerns as he went on holiday", but with a specific adjective term in ...
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Adjective similar to "in-depth" or "slow-paced" [closed]
I need to know whether there's an adjective that could work in this sentence:
I will provide ___ help so you can solve problems independently.
I hope that the answer could be similar to "in-...
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What is the best adjective to describe when a flag is flying perpendicularly like in this image?
It is Flag Day, and the US flag is on my brain. I can think of erect, unfurled, and at attention to describe a flag flying perpendicularly to the ground in a strong wind, but I feel like I’ve heard ...
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Time series: hyphenated or not?
I am facing a consistency issue when proofreading a paper regarding the use of the term 'time series'. When used as a standalone noun, it seems to be written as 'time series', with the two words being ...
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Usage of the word "ineffective" [closed]
Is it possible to use the word “ineffective” referring to people as is written in the following sentence? (Many thanks for the primary responses to this question, particularly
MarcInManhattan. I ...
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Does it make sense to use 'untenable' in this context?'
I'm writing about a character who is facing an arranged marriage. Does it make sense to say that, in a situation such as this, developing feelings for someone else is 'untenable'? Are there any other ...
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What is the term for phrases that are compound adjectives, similar to "come-hither look", "high-school-teaching voice"? [duplicate]
I know the etymology, and although it's listed as a noun, merriam-webster tells me the definition, but I want to know the name of this sort of adjective.
Wiktionary has it grouped as English ...
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Ambiguity between present participle, ing-adjectives, and gerund
"It is exciting." Is context the only way to classify exciting in one of these grammatical terms (present participle, ing-adjectives, and gerund)?
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[noun]+of+[noun] vs. [noun]+[noun] [duplicate]
What's the difference between these two structures? For example, take a look at this sentence: "The flow of fuel in an old machine like mine is regulated by a carburetor, which draws fuel into ...
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Specialized or Specialist [closed]
There is a large hospital in my city whose name is King Fahd Specialist Hospital. I argued with a doctor working there about the name of the hospital. I said that it needs to be changed into King Fahd ...
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Is it correct to place the adjective before 'is/was'?
For example: "Shut were his blinds." vs "His blinds were shut."
Is there any meaningful difference between these two? Is the former even grammatically correct?
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Is using "complete" as a gradable adjective ok in some situations?
So in writing, I want to express various degrees of completion. Originally, I used "in a more complete implementation". A reviewer remarked that this was wrong, as complete is not gradable. ...
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Benfica badge or Benfica's badge [duplicate]
Should I say: I kissed Benfica badge or I kissed Benfica's badge.
How are football teams' names used as adjectives?
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What could possibly cause the stress shift in adverbs ending in -arily compared to adjectives ending in -ary?
While adjectives ending in -ary (British English /əri/, American English /eri/) never have stress on the second last syllable (the /e/ in AmE, and obviously the /ə/ in BrE), their derivative adverbs ...
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What is the difference between these adjectives: Ketoic vs. Ketotic
From Wikitonary
Ketoic: Relating to ketosis or ketoacidosis
Ketotic: Of, pertaining to, or afflicted with ketosis
So, do you think these adjectives are synonymous, with ketotic being reserved to ...
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Are "close" and "open" verbs or adjectives? [closed]
I'm really hard stuck trying to comprehend whether these two words simultaneously have two natures.
I read:
The door is open
The door is opened
Difference?
The door is close
The door is closed
...
