syntactic

adjective

syn·​tac·​tic sin-ˈtak-tik How to pronounce syntactic (audio)
variants or syntactical
: of, relating to, or according to the rules of syntax or syntactics
syntactically adverb

Examples of syntactic in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
On top of that sequence, there's a structure, a syntactic tree that includes noun phrases and verb phrases. IEEE Spectrum, 14 Oct. 2021 After hundreds of trial and error steps, just like with biological evolution, the system evolves the best meaning and their syntactic/grammatical translation. IEEE Spectrum, 17 Mar. 2016 Most of their bulk comes from blocks of syntactic foam—a buoyant, crush-resistant material made of glass microspheres in epoxy resin—that are padded around the frame. Susan Casey, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Aug. 2023 Additionally, simply by filling in enough puzzles, our brains can learn that multi-word crossword answers must form what linguists call a syntactic constituent—a group of words that functions together as a complete unit, the way safe and reliable does but safe and doesn’t. Scott Anderbois, The Atlantic, 6 Aug. 2023 See all Example Sentences for syntactic 

Word History

Etymology

New Latin syntacticus, from Greek syntaktikos arranging together, from syntassein

First Known Use

1577, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of syntactic was in 1577

Dictionary Entries Near syntactic

Cite this Entry

“Syntactic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/syntactic. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

syntactic

adjective
syn·​tac·​tic sin-ˈtak-tik How to pronounce syntactic (audio)
variants or syntactical
: of, relating to, or according to the rules of syntax
syntactically adverb

Medical Definition

syntactic

adjective
syn·​tac·​tic sin-ˈtak-tik How to pronounce syntactic (audio)
variants or syntactical
: of or relating to syntactics
syntactically adverb

More from Merriam-Webster on syntactic

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!