Conjugations

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A specific version of a verb indicating its tense, person, number, or mood
2. A verb form that reflects changes based on time, the subject involved, or grammatical mood
3. One of the variations of a verb used to express different times, subjects, or manners of action

Etymology: "Conjugations" is the plural of "conjugation", and the singular form is the one with the older story. It was borrowed from Latin "coniugātiō", meaning a combining or connecting, which in turn comes from "coniugō", "join together" or "unite". The Latin verb is built from "con-", "together", and "iugō", "yoke", so the underlying picture is of two things yoked side by side. That sense of joining survives in the grammatical use: the forms of a verb are the same root bound to different endings, linked into one set. The word is "conjugate" plus the suffix "-ion", which turns a verb into a noun of action or result. Grammarians applied the term to verbs in English when it was adopted from Latin, carrying over the idea of a verb's forms being yoked together into a single paradigm.

Synonyms: inflections, variations