Definition of periphrastic


Reference
Dictionary
Encyclopedia
Thesaurus
World Factbook
Spanish Dictionary
Anatomy
Conversion Calculator

Word of the Day
perfunctory
Definition: (adjective) unenthusiastic, routine, or mechanical.
Petersons.com
Add Word of the Day to your personalized My Yahoo! page:
Add to My Yahoo! View RSS Feed
About My Yahoo! and RSS »
 
Search Dictionary:



per·i·phras·tic  audio  (pr-frstk) KEY 

ADJECTIVE:
  1. Having the nature of or characterized by periphrasis.
  2. Grammar Constructed by using an auxiliary word rather than an inflected form; for example, of father is the periphrastic possessive case of father but father's is the inflected possessive case, and did say is the periphrastic past tense of say but said is the inflected past tense.


OTHER FORMS:
peri·phrasti·cal·ly(Adverb)


Visit our partner's site
Provided by Houghton Mifflin
logoeReference -- Download this interactive reference software to your desktop computer