grammaticize

G2R1A1M3M3A1T1I1C3I1Z10E1

verb

Synonym of grammaticalize (“to make grammatical”).

Scrabble 28

Meanings

verbgrammaticize (third-person singular simple present grammaticizes, present participle grammaticizing, simple past and past participle grammaticized)

present singular third person grammaticizes · participle present grammaticizing · participle past grammaticized · past grammaticized

  1. Synonym of grammaticalize (“to make grammatical”).

    the very first attempt to embody, to arrange, or to grammaticize, this language

    a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC

    Synonyms: grammaticalize

  2. Synonym of grammaticalize (“to to cause (something) to be required by the rules of grammar”).

    Languages differ in the extent to which they grammaticize forms within this constrained inventory of conceptual domains and individual concepts, and this inventory, Talmy argues, amounts to the fundamental conceptual structuring system […]

    2008, Peter Robinson, Nick C. Ellis, Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition, Routledge, →ISBN
    1 more example

    ... organization (hence its heavy reliance on passives), but does not seem to grammaticize any person-based constraint. In languages with canonical inverse constructions (say Algonquian languages), the non-local person-based constraint is the primary determinant of argument encoding, and ordinary notion of topicality (which is local) plays little role.

    2008, Robert D. Van Valin, Jr., Investigations of the Syntax–Semantics–Pragmatics Interface, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 56

    Synonyms: grammaticalize

  3. Synonym of grammaticalize (“to cause to undergo grammaticization/grammaticalization”).

    Thus it appears that one avenue by which cunnan begins to grammaticize as an auxiliary is determined by the fact that it was already frequent and had already undergone some weakening of its semantic content.

    2006, Joan Bybee, Frequency of Use and the Organization of Language, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 342
    2 more examples

    Or to put it another way, the present tense use did not grammaticize. I suggest that the reason for this is that the habitual was more frequently used in the past than the present, since in the present there would be fewer cases […]

    1994, William Pagliuca, Perspectives on Grammaticalization, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 247

    Clause initial position is a frequent place for anaphoric elements and markers of textual coherence to grammaticize. The grammaticalization of a QP from a disjunction with anaphoric function fits well into this picture.

    1996, Chicago Linguistic Society. Meeting, Proceedings from the Main Session of the Chicago Linguistic Society's ... Meeting, →ISBN

    Synonyms: grammaticalize

Synonyms & antonyms

verbSynonym of grammaticalize (“to make grammatical”).

verbSynonym of grammaticalize (“to to cause (something) to be required by the rules of grammar”).

verbSynonym of grammaticalize (“to cause to undergo grammaticization/grammaticalization”).

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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