Quirkian

Q10U1I1R1K5I1A1N1

adjective

Of or relating to Randolph Quirk (1920–2017), British linguist who championed a descriptive approach toward English grammar.

Scrabble 21
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Meanings

adjectiveQuirkian (comparative more Quirkian, superlative most Quirkian)

comparative more Quirkian · superlative most Quirkian

  1. Of or relating to Randolph Quirk (1920–2017), British linguist who championed a descriptive approach toward English grammar.

    […]three works of Crystal who, of course, used the Quirkian model.

    1999, Rodney D. Huddleston, Peter Collins, David A. Lee, The clause in English: in honour of Rodney Huddleston, page 310
    2 more examples

    Naturally, such an interpretation must remain a wholly subjective matter even if one were to follow to their logical limits the clusters of Foucauldian and Quirkian beliefs about languages[…]

    1999, Irma Taavitsainen, Gunnel Melchers, Päivi Pahta, Writing in nonstandard English, page 84

    We are interested in the Quirkian notion that frequency of use of words correlates with acceptability of those words as part of the vocabulary[…]

    2005, Petra Perner, Atsushi Imiya, Machine learning and data mining in pattern recognition, page 572

Origin

From Quirk + -ian.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Quirkian. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Quirkian

MLA

“Quirkian.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Quirkian. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Quirkian,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Quirkian.

Source: Quirkian on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.