verb

verb — noun

1. a word that tells what someone or something does, what happens to them, or what

1.nounA2
Definition

a word that tells what someone or something does, what happens to them, or what state they are in — for example, 'run,' 'become,' and 'exist' are all verbs.

Example

In the sentence 'Birds fly,' the word 'fly' is a verb.

identifying a verb in context

Hyun looked up the verb 'discuss' in his dictionary before the test.

Common collocations
  • transitive verb
  • intransitive verb
  • irregular verb
  • phrasal verb
  • main verb
  • auxiliary verb
Synonyms
  • action word

    informal term, often used in primary school teaching

Antonyms
  • noun

    different word class — nouns name things rather than actions or states

Grammar Patterns

verb + be + noun phrase

a/the verb

Usage Note

A sentence normally contains at least one verb. The verb is often called the 'heart' of the sentence because it tells the main action or state.

Common Mistakes

I go to school yesterday.
I went to school yesterday.
The verb 'go' changes to 'went' for past tense.

verb — verb

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

'Verb' and 'predicate' are related but not interchangeable. A verb is a single word class ('run', 'exist'), while a predicate is the whole part of a sentence that tells what the subject does or is — it includes the verb plus any objects or complements. For example, in 'The cat slept on the sofa,' the verb is 'slept' but the predicate is 'slept on the sofa.' 'Action word' is an informal label used with young children; it only covers verbs that show physical actions and misses stative verbs like 'know' or 'belong.' Use 'verb' for precise grammatical discussion; use 'predicate' when analysing full sentence structure, and avoid 'action word' in academic contexts.

verb ↗predicate ↗action word

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

The word 'verb' comes from Latin 'verbum,' meaning 'word.' In Latin grammar, 'verbum' was used specifically for the part of speech that expresses an action or state, distinguishing it from 'nomen' (noun). The term entered English through Old French 'verbe' in the 1400s and has kept the same grammatical meaning ever since.