Meanings
nounpart of speech (plural parts of speech)
plural parts of speech
- grammarA linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties, such as noun or verb.
The Parts of Speech are the Noun (Substantive and Adjective), the Pronoun, the Verb, and the Particles (Adverb, Preposition, and Conjunction)[.]
2008 (1894), B. L. Gildersleeve & G. Lodge, Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar, third edition, reprint by Dover, p.94 more examples
PARTS OF SPEECH. There are ten parts of speech, viz. Article, Substantive or Noun, Adjective, Numeral, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, and Interjection.
1828, Charles Follen, A Practical Grammar of the German Language, Boston, page 9322. The parts of speech which are neither declined nor conjugated, are called by the general name of particles. 323. They are adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
1844, E. A. Andrews, First Lessions in Latin; or Introduction to Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar, 6th edition, Boston, page 91One group of substantives, the gerunds (scolding), belongs to a form-class with infinitives and with other verb-forms, in serving as head for certain types of modifiers, such as a goal (scolding the boys). For this reason a system of parts of speech in a language like English cannot be set up in any fully satisfactory way: our list of parts of speech will depend upon which functions we take to be the most important.
1933, Leonard Bloomfield, Language, page 269Following this, coding was added to delineate multiple senses within entries and nested terms within entries; then part of speech labels were added for every sense[.]
2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 489Synonyms: lexical category, lexical class, syntactic category, word class
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties, such as noun or verb.
Similar
More synonyms by meaning
nounone of the traditional categories of words intended to reflect their functions in a grammatical context
Similar
Broader
grammatical categorysyntactic category
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinpars ōrātiōnis
- Middle Englishparte of spech
- Englishpart of speech
From Middle English parte of spech, a calque of Latin pars ōrātiōnis.
More words from Middle English, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek μέρος τοῦ λόγου
- μέρος τοῦ λόγου (méros toû lógou)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Arabic جُزْء كَلَام, قَسْم كَلَام
- جُزْء كَلَام (juzʔ kalām)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- قَسْم كَلَام (qasm kalām)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Bengali পদ
- পদ (pod)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Bulgarian част на речта́
- част на речта́ (čast na rečtá)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Catalan categoria lèxica
- categoria lèxicalinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Chinese Cantonese 詞類 /词类, 詞性 /词性
- 詞類 /词类 (ci⁴ leoi⁶)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- 詞性 /词性linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Chinese Mandarin 詞類 /词类, 詞性 /词性
- 詞類 /词类 (cílèi)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- 詞性 /词性 (cíxìng)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Czech slovní druh
- slovní druhlinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Danish ordklasse
- ordklasselinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Dutch woordsoort
- woordsoortlinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Esperanto parolparto, vortospeco
- parolpartolinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- vortospecolinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- vorto-specolinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- vortspecolinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Estonian sõnaliik
- sõnaliiklinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Finnish sanaluokka
- sanaluokkalinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
French classe lexicale, partie du discours
- classe lexicalelinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- partie du discourslinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- classe grammaticalelinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- naturelinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
German Wortart, Wortklasse
- Wortartlinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- Wortklasselinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- Redeteillinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- Sprachteillinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Greek μέρος του λόγου
- μέρος του λόγου (méros tou lógou)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Hebrew חלק דיבור, חֵלֶק דִּבּוּר
- חלק דיבורlinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- חֵלֶק דִּבּוּר (khélek dibúr)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Hindi शब्द भेद
- शब्द भेद (śabd bhed)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Hungarian szófaj
- szófajlinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Icelandic orðflokkur
- orðflokkurlinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Indonesian kelas kata
- kelas katalinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Irish roinn chainte
- roinn chaintelinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Italian parte del discorso
- parte del discorsolinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Japanese 品詞, 語類
- 品詞 (hinshi)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- 語類 (gorui)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Korean 품사, 어류
- 품사 (pumsa)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- 어류 (eoryu)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Latin pars ōrātiōnis
- pars ōrātiōnislinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Latvian vārdšķira
- vārdšķiralinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Lithuanian kalbos dalis
- kalbos dalislinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Malay golongan kata
- golongan katalinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Norwegian Bokmål ordklasse
- ordklasselinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Polish część mowy
- część mowylinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Portuguese classe gramatical
- classe gramaticallinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Romanian parte de vorbire
- parte de vorbirelinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Russian часть ре́чи
- часть ре́чи (častʹ réči)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Slovak slovný druh
- slovný druhlinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Spanish categoría gramatical, categoría morfosintáctica
- categoría gramaticallinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- categoría morfosintácticalinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- parte de la oraciónlinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Swedish ordklass
- ordklasslinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Tagalog bahagi ng pananalita, bahagi ng pangungusap
- bahagi ng pananalitalinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- bahagi ng pangungusaplinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Tamil சொல்
- சொல் (col)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Thai วจีวิภาค, ชนิดของคำ
- วจีวิภาค (wá-jii-wí-pâak)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- ชนิดของคำ (chá-nít-kɔ̌ɔng-kam)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Turkish sözcük türü
- sözcük türülinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Ukrainian части́на мо́ви
- части́на мо́ви (častýna móvy)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Urdu جُزِ کَلام, کَلِمَہ
- جُزِ کَلام (juz-i kalām)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- کَلِمَہ (kalima)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- کَلْمَہ (kalma)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Vietnamese từ loại
- từ loạilinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Welsh rhan ymadrodd, dosbarth geiriol
- rhan ymadroddlinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
- dosbarth geiriollinguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Yiddish ווערטערקלאַס
- ווערטערקלאַס (verterklas)linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties
Cite this entry
APA
part of speech. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/part%20of%20speech
MLA
“part of speech.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/part%20of%20speech. Accessed November 5, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “part of speech,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/part%20of%20speech.
Source: part of speech on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.