Meanings
plural gerund-participles
- grammarThe form of an English verb that ends in -ing and can function as a noun, an adjective, or a progressive verb.
Near-synonyms: (in other operational definitions) gerund, present participle
5 more examples
The gerund-participle ¶ Traditionally (for example, in the grammar of Latin), a gerund is a verb-form that is functionally similar to a noun, whereas a participle is one that is functionally similar to an adjective.
2005, Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, A Student's Introduction to English GrammarTHE TERM 'GERUND-PARTICIPLE' used in the title of this paper is adopted from Huddleston and Pullum (2002:80), who see no reason to give priority to one or the other of the traditional terms used to refer to the verbal uses of the English -ing form illustrated in (1):
2005, Patrick J. Duffley, The English gerund-participle in cognitive grammarThe intralinguistic analysis carried out on our sample has revealed that, on average, the English gerund-participle is frequently used to realize circumstance adverbials, which may express a great variety of semantic roles.
2009, Frank Boers, Jeroen Darquennes, Koen Kerremans, Multilingualism and Applied Comparative LinguisticsTherefore I was happy when Geoffrey Pullum and Rodney Huddleston, in the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, presented a clear and compelling argument that "A distinction between gerund and present participle can't be sustained" (pp. 80-83 and 1220-1222). They therefore use the merged category "gerund-participle".
2010, Mark Liberman, “Gerunds vs. participles”, in Language LogThis amounted to 176 occurrences of the gerund-participle and 49 of the to-infinitive, an interesting statistic in itself, as it confirms the more noun-like character of the gerund-participle, ...
2014, Patrick Duffley, Reclaiming Control as a Semantic and Pragmatic PhenomenonSynonyms: ing-form, gerund, present participle
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe form of an English verb that ends in -ing and can function as a noun, an adjective, or a progressive verb.
Cite this entry
gerund-participle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gerund-participle
“gerund-participle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gerund-participle. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gerund-participle,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gerund-participle.
Source: gerund-participle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.