Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Not subject to grammatical inflection: In linguistics, "indeclinable" describes a word that does not change its form to indicate grammatical case, number, gender, or tense. Such words maintain the same shape regardless of their syntactic role.

2. Noun (linguistics):

   • An indeclinable word: A word that does not undergo inflection; it remains constant in form across different grammatical contexts.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • In Latin, many adverbs are indeclinable, meaning they never change their spelling. (They do not alter for case or number.)
  • The word "very" is an indeclinable adverb in English; it never takes endings. (It remains the same regardless of its function.)

• Noun:

  • Linguists classify prepositions as indeclinables because they lack inflection. (Words that do not change form.)

Advanced Usage

• "Indeclinable noun": A noun that does not change form to show plural or possessive.

  • "Sheep" is an indeclinable noun in English, as it is the same in both singular and plural. (It does not add -s or -es.)

• "Indeclinable adjective": An adjective that does not agree with the noun it modifies in gender, number, or case.

  • In Japanese, adjectives are often indeclinable, unlike in many European languages. (They do not change for grammatical context.)

Variants and Related Words

• Declinable (adj): capable of being inflected (the opposite of indeclinable).

  • Most nouns in English are declinable; they form plurals by adding -s. (They change form.)

• Declension (n): the process or system of inflecting nouns, pronouns, and adjectives.

  • Latin has five declensions for its nouns. (Patterns of inflection.)

Synonyms

• Invariable: not changing form; constant.
• Uninflected: lacking grammatical inflection.

Phrasal Verbs

• None directly: "Indeclinable" is not used in phrasal verbs.

Related Idioms

• None directly: "Indeclinable" is a technical term and does not appear in common idioms.