Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or functioning as a pronoun.
  • adjective Resembling a pronoun, as by specifying a person, place, or thing, while functioning primarily as another part of speech. His in his choice is a pronominal adjective.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Belonging to or of the nature of a pronoun: as, a pronominal root.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Belonging to, or partaking of the nature of, a pronoun.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of, pertaining to, resembling, or functioning as of a pronoun.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a phrase that functions as a pronoun
  • adjective relating to pronouns

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin prōnōminālis, from Latin prōnōmen, prōnōmin-, pronoun : pro-, in place of; see pro– + nōmen, name, noun; see noun.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin pronominalis, from Latin pronomin-, pronomen.

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Examples

  • But we are chiefly concerned with what may be called pronominal variation, in which the word avoided is either a noun or its obvious pronoun substitute.

    Elegant Variation. 1908

  • Egyptologists, who had even made its name into a kind of pronominal form.

    History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12) M. L. McClure 1881

  • Note that (2c) & (2d) are both correct because non-pronominal NPs are “zero-marked” in English.

    2009 October « Motivated Grammar 2009

  • Note that (2c) & (2d) are both correct because non-pronominal NPs are “zero-marked” in English.

    Whoever v. Whomever! Cases collide! Match of the Century! « Motivated Grammar 2009

  • In a wider sense, the phrase refers to any verb form whose grammatical object is a reflexive pronoun, regardless of semantics; such verbs are also referred to as pronominal verbs, especially in grammars of the Romance languages.

    Page 2 2009

  • It's necessary to explain the similarities that do exist between these languages, particularly visible in the shared pronominal systems.

    How to make a mockery of Proto-Japanese 2010

  • Sadly, no one has a clue as to what the plural pronouns were like and, as far as anyone knows, they aren't attested, so I'm restricted to the singular pronominal paradigm.

    Expanding the Etrusco-Lemnian primer 2010

  • This gendered argument is bolstered by the verse in Exodus 13: 9 which refers to tefillin as “a sign on your hand” where the masculine pronominal suffix “your hand” (yadekha) is used to exclude women.

    Legal-Religious Status of the Jewish Female. leBeit Yoreh 2009

  • This is phrased in the masculine singular, just as the obligation for the Passover sacrifice in the previous verse has both the verb and the pronominal suffix on “your God” in masculine singular.

    Legal-Religious Status of the Jewish Female. leBeit Yoreh 2009

  • It is possible linguistically that joint address in the singular form would take the more common, masculine form and be followed by the more common, masculine verb forms and pronominal suffixes.

    Legal-Religious Status of the Jewish Female. leBeit Yoreh 2009

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