syntactic expletives

A form of syntactic expletive — A pronoun that is used at the start of a sentence or clause when the referent is not immediately known, but an argument for the verb is syntactically required.

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Meanings

noun
  1. pluralplural of syntactic expletive
Cite this entry
APA

syntactic expletives. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/syntactic%20expletives

MLA

“syntactic expletives.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/syntactic%20expletives. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “syntactic expletives,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/syntactic%20expletives.

Source: syntactic expletives on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.