verbal

Pluralverbals

Formsverbals

1. 1
   adjective

   Spoken out loud instead of being written down.

   Like telling someone a secret out loud instead of writing it in a letter.

   We had only a verbal agreement, with nothing on paper.

   She gave verbal instructions before the meeting started.

   Similaroral, spoken, unwritten

   Oppositewritten

   Note
2. 2
   adjective

   Having to do with words and how they are used.

   Her verbal skills helped her win the debate.

   The test measures both verbal and math ability.

   Similarlinguistic, lexical

   Oppositenonverbal, numerical

   Note
3. 3
   adjective

   Made up of only words and nothing else.

   The artwork was a purely verbal piece, just lines of text on the wall.

   He offered only verbal support, never any money or labor.

   Similarvocal, spoken

   Oppositephysical

   Note
4. 4
   adjective

   Focused on the exact words of a text, not its meaning.

   Their verbal quibbles ignored the real point of the argument.

   A verbal reading of the poem counts its words but misses its spirit.

   Similarstylistic, rhetorical

   Oppositesubstantive

   Note
5. 5
   adjective

   Able to speak and to use spoken words.

   By age two, most children are highly verbal.

   The therapy helped him become more verbal after the injury.

   Similarcommunicative, articulate, vocal, talkative

   Oppositenonverbal, preverbal

   Note
6. 6
   adjective

   Coming from a verb, or acting like a verb.

   A participle is a verbal adjective, since it comes from a verb.

   The word 'swimming' has a verbal quality because it is built from a verb.

   Note
7. 7
   adjective

   Matching the original exactly, word for word.

   The translator produced a verbal version that followed the original word for word.

   He insisted on a verbal transcript that repeated every word of the speech.

   Similarliteral, verbatim

   Oppositefree, loose

   Note
8. 8
   adjective

   Used to turn another word into a verb.

   The verbal ending '-ize' turns 'modern' into 'modernize'.

   Some languages use a verbal prefix to build new action words.

   Note
9. 9
   nouncountable

   A word made from a verb that does not act as the main verb, like a gerund.

   Like a word that grew out of a verb but now does a new job in the sentence.

   A word like 'swimming' is a verbal when it works as a noun.

   The teacher asked us to find every verbal in the paragraph.

   Note
10. 10
    nouncolloquialIrelandUKuncountable

    Talk or speech, especially teasing or telling someone off.

    Like the back-and-forth teasing that friends throw at each other.

    The players gave each other loads of verbal during the match.

    She got plenty of verbal from the crowd.

    Similarbanter, abuse, stick, flak

    Note
11. 11
    nounIrelandUKcountable

    A spoken confession that someone gives to the police.

    Like admitting something out loud instead of writing and signing it.

    The suspect supposedly gave a verbal at the station.

    His lawyer questioned the verbal he was said to have made.

    Similarconfession, admission

    Note
12. 12
    verbAustraliaBritishtransitive

    To wrongly claim that someone has confessed out loud to the police.

    The lawyer accused the police of trying to verbal his client.

    Detectives were said to have verballed the two suspects.

    Note

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