Meanings
plural syntaxes · plural syntaces · plural proscribed syntices
- A set of rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences.
1 more example
The incorporation of a rule of V MOVEMENT into our description of English Syntax turns out to have fundamental theoretical implications for our overall Theory of Grammar: it means that we are no longer able to posit that the syntactic structure of a sentence can be described in terms of a single Phrase-marker representing its S-structure. For, the postulation of a rule of V-MOVEMENT means that we must recognise at least two different levels of structure in our Theory of Grammar — namely, a level of D-structure (formerly known as ‘Deep Structureʼ) which serves as input to the rule, and a separate level of S-structure which is formed by application of the rule.
1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 8, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 410 - countablecomputingThe formal rules of formulating the statements of a computer language.
- human sciencesThe study of the structure of phrases, sentences, and language.
[Otto] Jespersen, a language professor known for his expertise in syntax and language development, stated that headlinese is not really grammatical writing.
2021 May 29, Richard Nordquist, “What Is Headlinese?”, in ThoughtCo, archived from the original on 10 Dec 2021
Synonyms & antonyms
nounthe grammatical arrangement of words in sentences
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Ancient Greekσύνταξις
- Late Latinsyntaxis
- Englishsyntax
Partly from Late Latin syntaxis and partly from its etymon, Ancient Greek σύνταξις (súntaxis), from σύν (sún, “together”) + τάξις (táxis, “arrangement”), from τάσσω (tássō, “to arrange”). Doublet of syntaxis.
More words from Late Latin, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek σύνταξις
- σύνταξις (súntaxis)set of rules that govern how words are combined
Arabic بِنَاء جُمْلَة, نَحْو
- بِنَاء جُمْلَة (bināʔ jumla)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- نَحْو (naḥw)set of rules that govern how words are combined
Bengali বাক্যতত্ত্ব
- বাক্যতত্ত্ব (bakkototto)set of rules that govern how words are combined
Bulgarian синта́ксис, синта́ксис
- синта́ксис (sintáksis)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- синта́ксис (sintáksis)formal rules of a computer language
- синта́ксис (sintáksis)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
Catalan sintaxi
- sintaxiset of rules that govern how words are combined
Chinese Cantonese 句法, 句法學 /句法学
- 句法 (geoi³ faat³)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- 句法學 /句法学 (geoi³ faat³ hok⁶)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
- 語法學 /语法学 (jyu⁵ faat³ hok⁶)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
Chinese Mandarin 句法, 句法
- 句法 (jùfǎ)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- 句法 (jùfǎ)formal rules of a computer language
- 文法 (wénfǎ)formal rules of a computer language
- 句法學 /句法学 (jùfǎxué)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
- 語法學 /语法学 (yǔfǎxué)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
Czech syntax, syntax
- syntaxset of rules that govern how words are combined
- syntaxstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
- syntaxestudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Danish syntaks
- syntaksset of rules that govern how words are combined
Dutch syntaxis, syntaxis
- syntaxisset of rules that govern how words are combined
- syntaxisformal rules of a computer language
- zinsleerstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
- syntaxisstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Esperanto sintakso
- sintaksoset of rules that govern how words are combined
Estonian süntaks
- süntaksset of rules that govern how words are combined
Finnish lauseoppi, syntaksi
- lauseoppiset of rules that govern how words are combined
- syntaksiset of rules that govern how words are combined
- syntaksiformal rules of a computer language
- lauseoppistudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
- syntaksistudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
French syntaxe, syntaxe
- syntaxeset of rules that govern how words are combined
- syntaxeformal rules of a computer language
- syntaxestudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
German Syntax, Satzbau
- Syntaxset of rules that govern how words are combined
- Satzbauset of rules that govern how words are combined
- Syntaxformal rules of a computer language
- Satzlehrestudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
- Syntaxstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Greek συντακτικό, σύνταξη
- συντακτικό (syntaktikó)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- σύνταξη (sýntaxi)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- συντακτικό (syntaktikó)formal rules of a computer language
- συντακτικό (syntaktikó)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
Hebrew תַּחְבִּיר
- תַּחְבִּיר (takhbír)set of rules that govern how words are combined
Hindi वाक्यरचना, वाक्यविन्यास
- वाक्यरचना (vākyaracnā)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- वाक्यविन्यास (vākyavinyās)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- वाक्यविन्यास (vākyavinyās)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
- वाक्यरचना (vākyaracnā)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
Hungarian szintaxis, mondattan
- szintaxisset of rules that govern how words are combined
- mondattanstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Icelandic setningafræði, orðskipunarfræði
- setningafræðiset of rules that govern how words are combined
- orðskipunarfræðiset of rules that govern how words are combined
- málskipanformal rules of a computer language
- setningafræðistudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
- orðskipunarfræðistudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Indonesian sintaksis
- sintaksisset of rules that govern how words are combined
Irish comhréir, comhréir
- comhréirset of rules that govern how words are combined
- comhréirformal rules of a computer language
- comhréirstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Italian sintassi, sintassi
- sintassiset of rules that govern how words are combined
- sintassiformal rules of a computer language
Japanese 統語論, 構文論
- 統語論 (tōgoron)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- 構文論 (kōbunron)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- 統辞論 (tōjiron)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- シンタックス (shintakkusu)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- 文法 (bunpō)formal rules of a computer language
- 構文 (kōbun)formal rules of a computer language
- シンタックス (shintakkusu)formal rules of a computer language
- 統語論 (tōgoron)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
- 構文論 (kōbunron)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
- 統辞論 (tōjiron)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
- シンタックス (shintakkusu)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
Korean 통어론, 구문론
- 통어론 (tong'eoron)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- 구문론 (gumullon)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- 통사론 (tongsaron)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- 신택스 (sintaekseu)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- 통사론 (tongsaron)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
- 구문론 (gumullon)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
- 문장론 (munjangnon)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
- 신택스 (sintaekseu)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
- 월갈 (wolgal)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
- 통어론 (tong'eoron)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
Latin syntaxis, syntaxis
- syntaxisset of rules that govern how words are combined
- syntaxisstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Latvian sintakse
- sintakseset of rules that govern how words are combined
Lithuanian sintaksė
- sintaksėset of rules that govern how words are combined
Malay sintaksis
- sintaksisset of rules that govern how words are combined
Māori wetereo, tātaikupu
- wetereoset of rules that govern how words are combined
- tātaikupuset of rules that govern how words are combined
- tātaikupuformal rules of a computer language
- wetereostudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Norwegian Bokmål syntaks, syntaks
- syntaksset of rules that govern how words are combined
- syntaksformal rules of a computer language
- syntaksstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Persian نَحو, نَحو
- نَحو (nahv)formal rules of a computer language
- نَحو (nahv)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
Polish składnia, syntaksa
- składniaset of rules that govern how words are combined
- syntaksaset of rules that govern how words are combined
- syntaktykaset of rules that govern how words are combined
- składniaformal rules of a computer language
- syntaksaformal rules of a computer language
- syntaktykaformal rules of a computer language
- składniastudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
- syntaksastudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
- syntaktykastudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Portuguese sintaxe, sintaxe
- sintaxeset of rules that govern how words are combined
- sintaxeformal rules of a computer language
- sintaxestudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Romanian sintaxă, sintaxă
- sintaxăset of rules that govern how words are combined
- sintaxăformal rules of a computer language
- sintaxăstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Russian си́нтаксис, си́нтаксис
- си́нтаксис (síntaksis)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- си́нтаксис (síntaksis)formal rules of a computer language
- си́нтаксис (síntaksis)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
Slovak syntax, syntax
- syntaxset of rules that govern how words are combined
- syntaxstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Spanish sintaxis, sintaxis
- sintaxisset of rules that govern how words are combined
- sintaxisformal rules of a computer language
- sintaxisstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Swahili sintaksia, sintaksia
- sintaksiaset of rules that govern how words are combined
- sintaksiastudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Swedish syntax, satslära
- syntaxset of rules that govern how words are combined
- satsläraset of rules that govern how words are combined
- syntaxformal rules of a computer language
- grammatikformal rules of a computer language
- syntaxstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
- grammatikstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Tagalog palaugnayan, palaugnayan
- palaugnayanset of rules that govern how words are combined
- palaugnayanformal rules of a computer language
- palaugnayanstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Thai วากยสัมพันธ์, วากยสัมพันธ์
- วากยสัมพันธ์ (wâak-gà-yá-sǎm-pan)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- วากยสัมพันธ์ (wâak-gà-yá-sǎm-pan)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
Turkish sözdizimi, sentaks
- sözdizimiset of rules that govern how words are combined
- sentaksset of rules that govern how words are combined
Ukrainian си́нтаксис, си́нтаксис
- си́нтаксис (sýntaksys)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- си́нтаксис (sýntaksys)formal rules of a computer language
- си́нтаксис (sýntaksys)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
Urdu نَحْو
- نَحْو (nahv)set of rules that govern how words are combined
Vietnamese cú pháp, cú pháp học
- cú phápset of rules that govern how words are combined
- cú pháp họcstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Welsh cystrawen, gwyddor cystrawen
- cystrawenset of rules that govern how words are combined
- gwyddor cystrawenstudy of the structure of phrases and sentences
Yiddish סינטאַקס, סינטאַקס
- סינטאַקס (sintaks)set of rules that govern how words are combined
- סינטאַקס (sintaks)formal rules of a computer language
- סינטאַקס (sintaks)study of the structure of phrases and sentences
Rhymes & wordplay
Sounds the same
Cite this entry
syntax. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/syntax
“syntax.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/syntax. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “syntax,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/syntax.
Source: syntax on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.