grammar

• grammary (archaic)
• grammer (obsolete)

From Middle English gramer, gramarye, gramery, from Old French gramaire (“classical learning”), from the unattested *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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹæ.mə(ɹ)/
• (General American) enPR: gră'mər, IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹæ.mɚ/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æmə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: gram‧mar

grammar (countable and uncountable, plural grammars)

1. A system of rules and principles for speaking and writing a language.
2. (uncountable, linguistics) The study of the internal structure of words (morphology) and the use of words in the construction of phrases and sentences (syntax).
3. A book describing the rules of grammar of a language.
4. (computing theory) A formal system specifying the syntax of a language.
   • 2006, Patrick Blackburn · Johan Bos · Kristina Striegnitz, Learn Prolog Now!, §8.2

     Because real lexicons are big and complex, from a software engineering perspective it is best to write simple grammars that have a simple, well-defined way, of pulling out the information they need from vast lexicons. That is, grammars should be thought of as separate entities which can access the information contained in lexicons. We can then use specialised mechanisms for efficiently storing the lexicon and retrieving data from it.

5. Actual or presumed prescriptive notions about the correct use of a language.
6. (computing theory) A formal system defining a formal language
7. The basic rules or principles of a field of knowledge or a particular skill.
   • 2011, Javier Solana and Daniel Innerarity, Project Syndicate, The New Grammar of Power:

     We must learn a new grammar of power in a world that is made up more of the common good – or the common bad – than of self-interest or national interest.

8. (Britain, archaic) A book describing these rules or principles; a textbook.

   a grammar of geography

   • 1926, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “VI: A Summary”, in The Outline of Sanity, London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., OCLC 776601877:

     To turn this sort of mixture of a gossip and a gospel into anything like a grammar of Distributism has been quite impossible.

9. (UK) A grammar school.
   • 2012 January 11, Graeme Paton, “A green light for more grammars?”, in The Daily Telegraph:

• (study & field of study in medieval Latin contexts): glomery
• (linguistics): morpho-syntax (from the relationship between morphology and syntax)

• context-sensitive grammar
• finite-state grammar
• Turing-complete grammar
• normative grammar

• glamour
• gramarye

grammar (third-person singular simple present grammars, present participle grammaring, simple past and past participle grammared)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To discourse according to the rules of grammar; to use grammar.
   • c. 1619–1623, John Ford, “The Lavves of Candy”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, OCLC 3083972, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     She is in her Moods, and her Tenses: / I'll Grammar with you, / And make a trial how I can decline you

• grammar on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Appendix:Glossary of grammar
• Category:Grammar

• grammar at The Septic's Companion: A British Slang Dictionary

grammar m (genitive singular [please provide], plural [please provide])

1. grammar

• grammeydys

• grammeydagh
• neughrammeydoil