appositive

1 of 2

noun

ap·​pos·​i·​tive ə-ˈpä-zə-tiv 

a-

plural appositives

: a pair or occasionally a series of usually adjacent words, phrases, or clauses (especially nouns or noun equivalents) that have the same referent and that stand in the same syntactical relation to the rest of the sentence (such as the poet and Burns in "a biography of the poet Burns") : a pair or series of words, phrases, or clauses standing in grammatical apposition

To succeed in the genre, a writer has got to accentuate the appositive, that key phrase between the first two commas telling you just who the corpse was and what he did. [Robert McGill] Thomas [Jr.] can hold this syntactical note longer than Placido Domingo: "Benjamin Eisenstadt, the innovative Brooklyn businessman who set Americans to shaking their sugar before sweetening their coffee and then shook up the entire sweetener industry as the developer of Sweet'n Low, died at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center."

—Thomas Mallon

appositive

2 of 2

adjective

: of, relating to, or standing in grammatical apposition : of, relating to, or being a grammatical appositive

an appositive word/phrase/clause

appositively adverb

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

The first phrase is an appositive—typically a noun or noun phrase that modifies another noun or noun phrase, which appears next to it in the sentence. —David Owen, The New Yorker, 12 Jan. 2023

Word History

Etymology

Noun

derivative of appositive entry 2

Adjective

borrowed from Late Latin appositīvus, from Latin appositus "situated near, ready at hand, suitable" + -īvus -ive — more at apposite

First Known Use

Noun

1834, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1693, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

appositive

1 of 2 adjective

ap·​pos·​i·​tive

ə-ˈpäz-ət-iv,

a-

: of, relating to, or standing in apposition

appositively adverb

appositive

2 of 2 noun

: the second of a pair of nouns or noun equivalents in apposition