"pro-verb" meaning in English

See pro-verb in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: pro-verbs [plural]
Etymology: Formed in English of pro- (“substituting for”) + verb. Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|pro-|verb|t1=substituting for}} pro- (“substituting for”) + verb Head templates: {{en-noun}} pro-verb (plural pro-verbs)
  1. (linguistics, grammar) A pro-form used to substitute for a verb or verb phrase. Translations (pro-form for a verb or verb phrase): proverbum [neuter] (Dutch), pro-verbe [masculine] (French), 代動詞 (daidōshi) (Japanese), местоглаго́лие (mestoglagólije) [neuter] (Russian)

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "pro-",
        "3": "verb",
        "t1": "substituting for"
      },
      "expansion": "pro- (“substituting for”) + verb",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Formed in English of pro- (“substituting for”) + verb.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pro-verbs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "pro-verb (plural pro-verbs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms prefixed with pro-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
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          "parents": [],
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        },
        {
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Dutch translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Japanese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Grammar",
          "orig": "en:Grammar",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Linguistics",
          "orig": "en:Linguistics",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              135,
              143
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1875, Simon Kerl, A Common School Grammar of the English Language, page 150:",
          "text": "“They herd cattle, and raise corn, just as we used to do”; i.e., to herd cattle and raise corn. Do is sometimes thus used as a sort of pro-verb to represent an active verb or a phrase.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              4,
              12
            ],
            [
              81,
              89
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2000, Laurel Brinton, The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction, page 206:",
          "text": "The pro-verb do is like a pronoun; just as a pronoun replaces the entire NP, the pro-verb replaces an entire VP.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A pro-form used to substitute for a verb or verb phrase."
      ],
      "id": "en-pro-verb-en-noun-dv-e-ZWB",
      "links": [
        [
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          "linguistics"
        ],
        [
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        [
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        ],
        [
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          "substitute"
        ],
        [
          "verb",
          "verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(linguistics, grammar) A pro-form used to substitute for a verb or verb phrase."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "grammar",
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "lang_code": "nl",
          "sense": "pro-form for a verb or verb phrase",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "proverbum"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "pro-form for a verb or verb phrase",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "pro-verbe"
        },
        {
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "lang_code": "ja",
          "roman": "daidōshi",
          "sense": "pro-form for a verb or verb phrase",
          "word": "代動詞"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "roman": "mestoglagólije",
          "sense": "pro-form for a verb or verb phrase",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "местоглаго́лие"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "pro-verb"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "pro-",
        "3": "verb",
        "t1": "substituting for"
      },
      "expansion": "pro- (“substituting for”) + verb",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Formed in English of pro- (“substituting for”) + verb.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pro-verbs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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  ],
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  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms prefixed with pro-",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Dutch translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with Japanese translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations",
        "en:Grammar",
        "en:Linguistics"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              135,
              143
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1875, Simon Kerl, A Common School Grammar of the English Language, page 150:",
          "text": "“They herd cattle, and raise corn, just as we used to do”; i.e., to herd cattle and raise corn. Do is sometimes thus used as a sort of pro-verb to represent an active verb or a phrase.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              4,
              12
            ],
            [
              81,
              89
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2000, Laurel Brinton, The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction, page 206:",
          "text": "The pro-verb do is like a pronoun; just as a pronoun replaces the entire NP, the pro-verb replaces an entire VP.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A pro-form used to substitute for a verb or verb phrase."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "linguistics",
          "linguistics"
        ],
        [
          "grammar",
          "grammar"
        ],
        [
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          "pro-form"
        ],
        [
          "substitute",
          "substitute"
        ],
        [
          "verb",
          "verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(linguistics, grammar) A pro-form used to substitute for a verb or verb phrase."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "grammar",
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "lang_code": "nl",
      "sense": "pro-form for a verb or verb phrase",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "proverbum"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "pro-form for a verb or verb phrase",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "pro-verbe"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "lang_code": "ja",
      "roman": "daidōshi",
      "sense": "pro-form for a verb or verb phrase",
      "word": "代動詞"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "roman": "mestoglagólije",
      "sense": "pro-form for a verb or verb phrase",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "местоглаго́лие"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pro-verb"
}

Download raw JSONL data for pro-verb meaning in English (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-02-14 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-02-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 59dc20b). 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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