Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

syntactic expletive

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.36 in modern English

Syllables: syn-tac-tic -ex-ple-tive
IPA

37

Scrabble Score

18

Letters

6

Syllables

12

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A pronoun that is used at the start of a sentence or clause when the referent is not immediately known, but an argument for the verb is syntactically required.

Example Sentences

"In the sentences "It is a hammer that is needed." and "There are hammers in the toolbox.", both "it" and "there" are syntactic expletives."

Inflected Forms

syntactic expletives (plural)

Phrases

dummy it existential there

Frequently Paired Words

expletive dummy it existential there

Questions

What does syntactic expletive mean?: A pronoun that is used at the start of a sentence or clause when the referent is not immediately known, but an argument for the verb is syntactically required.

How to pronounce syntactic expletive

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