grammar

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The rules for how words are formed and combined into sentences in a language.

   English grammar can be hard for beginners.

2. 2
   noun

   The branch of linguistics that studies these rules.

   She teaches grammar at the university.

3. 3
   noun

   The basic rules or principles of a particular skill or field.

   Learning the grammar of music takes years of practice.

4. 4
   noun

   A book that describes the rules of a language.

   He bought a French grammar to study at home.

From Middle English gramere, from Old French gramaire (“classical learning”), from unattested Vulgar Latin *grammāria, an alteration of Latin grammatica, from Ancient Greek γραμματική (grammatikḗ, “skilled in writing”), from γράμμα (grámma, “line of writing”), from γράφω (gráphō, “write”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to carve, scratch”). Displaced native Old English stæfcræft; a doublet of glamour, glamoury, gramarye, and grimoire. Piecewise doublet of grammatic.

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