From Middle English adjectif, adjective, from Old French adjectif, from Latin adiectivus, from adiciō + -īvus, from ad- ("to, towards, at") + iaciō ("throw").

• IPA: /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɪk.tɪv/, /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɛk.tɪv/, /ˈæd͡ʒ.ək.tɪv/, /ˈæd͡ʒ.ə.tɪv/

adjective (plural adjectives)

1. (grammar) A word that modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes a noun’s referent.

   The words “big” and “heavy” are English adjectives.

2. (obsolete) A dependent; an accessory.
   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of the University of Cambridge, since the Conquest, [London]: …] Iohn Williams […, →OCLC ↗:

     it must be an adjective of dain

• See Thesaurus:adjective

• French: nom adjectif, adjectif
• German: Adjektiv, Eigenschaftswort, Beiwort, Wiewort, Beschreibungswort
• Italian: aggettivo
• Portuguese: adjetivo
• Russian: и́мя прилага́тельное
• Spanish: adjetivo

adjective (not comparable)

1. (grammar) Adjectival; pertaining to or functioning as an adjective.

   Synonyms: adjectival

2. (legal) Applying to methods of enforcement and rules of procedure.
   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 10, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC ↗:

     The whole English law, substantive and adjective.

   Synonyms: procedural

   Antonyms: substantive

3. (chemistry, of a dye) Needing the use of a mordant to be made fast to that which is being dyed.

   Antonyms: substantive

4. (obsolete, reflected in the chemical sense, but extinct as a general sense) Incapable of independent function.
   • 1899, John Jay Chapman, Emerson and Other Essays, AMS Press (1969) (as reproduced ↗ in Project Gutenberg)

     In fact, God is of not so much importance in Himself, but as the end towards which man tends. That irreverent person who said that Browning uses “God” as a pigment made an accurate criticism of his theology. In Browning, God is adjective to man.

   Synonyms: dependent, derivative
   Coordinate terms: adjunct, adjunctive, adjutant

• French: procédure
• German: formal
• Portuguese: adjetivo
• Spanish: adjetivo

adjective (adjectives, present participle adjectiving; simple past and past participle adjectived)

1. (transitive) To make an adjective of; to form or convert into an adjective.
   • 1805, John Horne Tooke, Epea Pteroenta: or The Diversions of Purley Part 2

     Language has as much occasion to adjective the distinct signification of the verb, and to adjective also the mood, as it has to adjective time. It has […] adjectived all three.

2. (transitive, chiefly as a participle) To characterize with an adjective; to describe by using an adjective.

• adjectify
• adjectivize

• French: adjectiver, adjectiviser, adjectivaliser
• Italian: aggettivare
• Portuguese: adjetivar
• Spanish: adjetivar