Grammaticalization

//ɡɹəˌmæ.tɪ.kə.lɪˈzeɪ.ʃən// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The process of making grammatical. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    The process of language change by which a word or morpheme is reduced to more of a grammeme than a lexeme, for example the reduction of a content word representing an object or action (a noun or verb) to a clitic. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
grammaticizationgrammatization

Example

More examples

"In the process of grammaticalization, an uninflected lexical word (or content word) is transformed into a grammar word (or function word)."

Etymology

From French grammaticalisation, coined in 1912 by the French linguist Antoine Meillet, corresponding to grammatical + -ization.

More for "grammaticalization"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.