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verb

\ ˈvərb

Definition of verb

(Entry 1 of 2)

: a word that characteristically is the grammatical center of a predicate and expresses an act, occurrence, or mode of being, that in various languages is inflected for agreement with the subject, for tense, for voice, for mood, or for aspect, and that typically has rather full descriptive meaning and characterizing quality but is sometimes nearly devoid of these especially when used as an auxiliary or linking verb

verb

verbed; verbing

Definition of verb (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

: to use (a word and especially a noun) as a verb : to make (a word) into a verb A television announcer in Vero Beach, Fla., spoke of a promise "to upkeep the beach," thus verbing a word that had been in use as an honest noun since 1884.— James Kilpatrick But it is by no means unusual for a noun to be verbed.— Theodore M. Bernstein

Other Words from verb What is a verb? Example Sentences Learn More about verb

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What is a verb?

Verbs are words that show an action (sing), occurrence (develop), or state of being (exist). Almost every sentence requires a verb. The basic form of a verb is known as its infinitive. The forms call, love, break, and go are all infinitives.

Almost all verbs have two other important forms called participles. Participles are forms that are used to create several verb tenses (forms that are used to show when an action happened); they can also be used as adjectives. The present participle always ends in -ing: calling, loving, breaking, going. (There is also a kind of noun, called a gerund, that is identical in form to the present participle form of a verb.) The past participle usually ends in -ed, but many past participles have irregular endings: called, loved, broken, gone.

The verb's past tense usually has the same -ed form as the past participle. For many verbs, however, the past tense is irregular. An irregular past tense is not always identical to an irregular past participle: called, loved, broke, went.

The two main kinds of verbs, transitive verbs and intransitive verbs, are discussed at the entries for transitive and intransitive.

Examples of verb in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Perhaps the biggest pandemic winner is Zoom Video Communications, which scored the rare success of turning its name into a verb. — James Mackintosh, WSJ, "Where Danger Lurks in the Big Tech Rally," 6 Sep. 2020 What haunted me, then and for many years, was the active verb in that sentence. — Trina Ryan, New York Times, "Changing My Name Allowed Me to Move On," 26 Aug. 2020 The first character is the verb to make, the second is to turn over. — Victor Wei Ke Yang, Longreads, "Leadership Academy," 10 Aug. 2020 If the news is a verb, its movements, now more than ever, can feel frenzied and relentless. — Megan Garber, The Atlantic, "The National Emergency at Your Doorstep," 11 July 2020 Zoom is our new verb, creeping into our collective vocabulary just as the coronavirus did a few months back. — Beth Thames | Bethmthames@gmail.com, al, "Do you Zoom? Why yes, I do," 8 July 2020 In its verb form, to be humbugged is to be deceived or be the victim of a hoax. — Elizabeth Wolfe And Douglas S. Wood, CNN, "Humbug! Where does that word come from anyway?," 21 Dec. 2019 Cooking to the tune of a recipe has forced me to focus more on the immediate and the minute—peeling each carota and memorizing each new verb—and less on the end result. — Ali Francis, Bon Appétit, "There’s No Better Time To... Cook in a Foreign Language," 14 May 2020 We, as hospitality folks, are driven to care, as an active verb. — Soleil Ho, SFChronicle.com, "How laid-off Bay Area restaurant workers sustain themselves during shelter in place," 27 Apr. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'verb.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.