Meanings
nounagrammatism (countable and uncountable, plural agrammatisms)
plural agrammatisms
- uncountableThe inability to form sentences by virtue of a brain disorder.
The syntactical rules organizing words into higher units are lost; this loss, called agrammatism, causes the degeneration of the sentence into a mere "word heap," to use Jackson's image.
1987 [1956], Roman Jakobson, edited by Krystyna Pomorska Stephen Rudy, Language in Literature, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, →ISBN, page 106 - countableAn ungrammatical utterance.
Origin
From Ancient Greek ἀγράμματος (agrámmatos, “illiterate”) + English -ism (English suffix).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Dutch agrammatisme
- agrammatismeinability to form sentences
French agrammatisme
- agrammatismeinability to form sentences
Greek αγραμματισμός
- αγραμματισμός (agrammatismós)inability to form sentences
Hungarian agrammatizmus
- agrammatizmusinability to form sentences
Italian agrammatismo
- agrammatismoinability to form sentences
Polish agramatyzm
- agramatyzminability to form sentences
Portuguese agramatismo
- agramatismoinability to form sentences
Spanish agramatismo
- agramatismoinability to form sentences
Cite this entry
APA
agrammatism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/agrammatism
MLA
“agrammatism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/agrammatism. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “agrammatism,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/agrammatism.
Source: agrammatism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.