"modal auxiliary" meaning in English

See modal auxiliary in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: modal auxiliaries [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} modal auxiliary (plural modal auxiliaries)
  1. (grammar) A verb used to express the mood (or tense) of another verb. Wikipedia link: modal auxiliary Categories (topical): Grammar Related terms: modal verb, modal case Translations (verb used to express the mood of another verb): modaaliapuverbi (Finnish), modaalinen apuverbi (Finnish), módbeli segédige (Hungarian), modalt hjälpverb [neuter] (Swedish)

Inflected forms

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      "form": "modal auxiliaries",
      "tags": [
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      "expansion": "modal auxiliary (plural modal auxiliaries)",
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  "senses": [
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        "A verb used to express the mood (or tense) of another verb."
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      "id": "en-modal_auxiliary-en-noun-kTViHE2N",
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        [
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          "tense",
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        "(grammar) A verb used to express the mood (or tense) of another verb."
      ],
      "related": [
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "verb used to express the mood of another verb",
          "word": "modaaliapuverbi"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "verb used to express the mood of another verb",
          "word": "modaalinen apuverbi"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "verb used to express the mood of another verb",
          "word": "módbeli segédige"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "verb used to express the mood of another verb",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "modalt hjälpverb"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "modal auxiliary"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "modal auxiliary"
}
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      ],
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      ],
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        "linguistics",
        "sciences"
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "verb used to express the mood of another verb",
      "word": "modaaliapuverbi"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "verb used to express the mood of another verb",
      "word": "modaalinen apuverbi"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "verb used to express the mood of another verb",
      "word": "módbeli segédige"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "verb used to express the mood of another verb",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "modalt hjälpverb"
    }
  ],
  "word": "modal auxiliary"
}

Download raw JSONL data for modal auxiliary meaning in English (1.6kB)

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (b81b832 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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