verb

1 of 2

noun

ˈvərb 

: a word that characteristically is the grammatical center of a predicate and expresses an act, occurrence, or mode of being, that in various languages is inflected for agreement with the subject, for tense, for voice, for mood, or for aspect, and that typically has rather full descriptive meaning and characterizing quality but is sometimes nearly devoid of these especially when used as an auxiliary or linking verb

verbless

ˈvərb-ləs 

adjective

verb

2 of 2

verb

verbed; verbing

transitive verb

: to use (a word and especially a noun) as a verb : to make (a word) into a verb

A television announcer in Vero Beach, Fla., spoke of a promise "to upkeep the beach," thus verbing a word that had been in use as an honest noun since 1884.

—James Kilpatrick

But it is by no means unusual for a noun to be verbed.

—Theodore M. Bernstein

Did you know?

What is a verb?

Verbs are words that show an action (sing), occurrence (develop), or state of being (exist). Almost every sentence requires a verb. The basic form of a verb is known as its infinitive. The forms call, love, break, and go are all infinitives.

Almost all verbs have two other important forms called participles. Participles are forms that are used to create several verb tenses (forms that are used to show when an action happened); they can also be used as adjectives. The present participle always ends in -ing: calling, loving, breaking, going. (There is also a kind of noun, called a gerund, that is identical in form to the present participle form of a verb.) The past participle usually ends in -ed, but many past participles have irregular endings: called, loved, broken, gone.

The verb's past tense usually has the same -ed form as the past participle. For many verbs, however, the past tense is irregular. An irregular past tense is not always identical to an irregular past participle: called, loved, broke, went.

The two main kinds of verbs, transitive verbs and intransitive verbs, are discussed at the entries for transitive and intransitive.

Examples of verb in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Praise with verbs Huberman explains it in simple terms: no more nouns. —Alexa Mikhail, Fortune Well, 9 Aug. 2023

And so it's always been about sort of keeping it really simple, but also keeping really physical stories, using really physical language, not using concepts like thought verbs, using much more active verbs. —Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 2 Sep. 2023

Even Verizon invested big into video conferencing, snapping up BlueJeans for around $400 million and making vague promises about integrating it with 5G. Zoom, meanwhile, became a verb and a household name practically overnight. —Jay Peters, The Verge, 12 Aug. 2023

Just as toddlers develop a deep knowledge of different classes of words without being taught what a noun or a verb is, crossword solvers develop strong intuitions about what entries are possible and how they can be clued. —Scott Anderbois, The Atlantic, 6 Aug. 2023

For objects of verbs and prepositions, use me, you, him, her, it, us, and them. —Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 May 2023

But the absence of one verb from the policy announcement was quickly noticed by investors, sending ripples through European markets. —Chelsey Dulaney, WSJ, 27 July 2023

Digest would be a more appropriate verb—digesting training data to carry out their function: predicting the best next word in a sequence. —WIRED, 25 July 2023

While apps like Duolingo are known for hammering in vocabulary through simple flashcard-type quizzes, Rosetta Stone progresses to verbs and conjugation through more complex learning models. —Anna Tingley, Variety, 5 June 2023

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Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English verbe, borrowed from Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin verbum "word, verb" — more at word entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1928, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing verb

• action verb
• modal auxiliary verb
• modal verb
• pro-verb
• phrasal verb
• verb sap
• linking verb
• helping verb
• auxiliary verb

• action verb
• modal auxiliary verb
• modal verb
• pro-verb
• phrasal verb
• verb sap
• linking verb
• helping verb
• auxiliary verb

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Video

When Body Parts Are Also Verbs

Head, shoulders, metaphors, and toes

Kids Definition

verb

noun

ˈvərb 

: a word that is usually the grammatical center of a predicate and expresses an act, occurrence, or state of being and that in various languages is inflected (as for agreement with the subject or for tense)