preposition
Pluralprepositions
Pluralprepositions
- 1A non-inflecting word that links a following noun or pronoun to another word, showing a relationship such as place, time, or direction.
Like a hinge joining two parts while showing how they move in relation to each other.
In the phrase 'the cat on the mat,' the word 'on' works as a preposition.
Each preposition governs the noun or pronoun that follows it.
Oppositepostposition
Note
The name says where the word stands: Latin praepositio, from praepono, "to place before." Because it never changes form, older grammars grouped it with adverbs, conjunctions and interjections as a particle. When its object is a question word, the whole phrase can move to the front, as in To whom can I send this letter? Careful writers use that construction to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition.
- 2An adposition: a linking function word used regardless of whether it precedes or follows the noun or pronoun it governs.
Across languages, a preposition need not always stand before the word it connects.
She analyzed every preposition in the corpus, including those that trail their objects.
Similaradposition
Note
Linguists who use the word broadly accept a small paradox. The strict grammatical term means "placed before," yet here it also covers words that follow their noun. Where position matters, adposition is the neutral cover term, and preposition and postposition name the two placements. In writing about languages other than English, check which usage an author intends.
- 3Alternative spelling of pre-position.
Commanders preposition supplies near the border before the storm season.
Aid groups preposition tents and blankets ahead of the winter.
Note
The verb is a separate coinage, pre- plus position, and its unhyphenated spelling collides with the grammar term. That clash is why it is sometimes proscribed. Writing pre-position, pre-positioned or pre-positioning removes the ambiguity. The verb is transitive and usually takes concrete objects: you preposition supplies, tools, instruments or troops.
Less common meaning
- 4A proposition, exposition, or extended piece of discourse.
The bishop opened the synod with a weighty preposition on charity.
The prepositions in the old volume each defend a single point of doctrine.
Note
Here the word names a speech set before listeners, not a word set before a noun; Latin praepositio comes from praepono, "to place before." Robert Fabyan's New Chronicles of England (1516) pairs it with oration: "a longe preposicion & oracion" on the allegiance owed by lords. The sense is obsolete. In modern writing use proposition or exposition. In early texts, don't mistake it for the grammatical word.
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Practice
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Origins
From Middle English preposicioun, from Old French preposicion, from Latin praepositio (from praepono, "to place before"), equivalent to pre- + position. It is so named because it is placed before the word it is phrased with, as in "a bridge of iron" or "he comes from town."
Formed from pre- and position.