Meaning & use
appositive
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
A word or group of words placed beside a noun to give extra information about it or to name it another way.
Grammar: A grammar term: in my sister, Clara, the name Clara is an appositive.
Patterns
- an appositive for something
- an appositive phrase
In the sentence My neighbor, a retired pilot, loves gardening, a retired pilot is an appositive.
Teachers often ask students to underline the appositive in each sentence.
Remove the appositive and the sentence should still make sense.
adjectivebefore a nountechnical
Describing a word or phrase that stands next to a noun and renames or explains it.
Grammar: Used before a noun in terms such as appositive phrase.
Patterns
- an appositive phrase
- an appositive noun
The appositive phrase in this sentence is set off by commas.
Writers use appositive clauses to pack facts into fewer words.
An appositive structure can replace a separate sentence about the same person.
Word forms
| plural | appositives |
|---|
Common combinations
- appositive phrase
- The appositive phrase tells us who the author is.
- set off an appositive
- Use commas to set off an appositive that is not essential.
- restrictive appositive
- In the poet Keats, the restrictive appositive needs no commas.
- nonrestrictive appositive
- A nonrestrictive appositive adds extra detail and takes commas.
- identify the appositive
- Please identify the appositive in the second line.
Synonyms and how they differ
- apposition
- Apposition names the grammatical relationship itself, while an appositive is the word or phrase that stands in that relationship.
- epithet
- An epithet is a descriptive name or title such as the Great, which can be an appositive, but appositive is the broader grammatical label.
Word family
- apposition noun
- the placing of two elements side by side so that one explains the other
- appose verb
- to place side by side (rare)
- appositional adjective
- relating to apposition
Commonly confused: appositive or opposite?
appositive vs opposite
Opposite means contrary or facing. An appositive does not oppose anything; it sits next to a noun and renames it.
Practice
In the sentence Marie Curie, a famous physicist, won two Nobel Prizes, which part is the appositive?
Choose one answer.
A famous physicist sits beside the noun Marie Curie and renames it. Marie Curie is the noun being renamed, and the other choices are parts of the verb phrase.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “appositive”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.