Word.ws English Dictionary

modal verb

modal verb noun: a verb whose primary function is to express grammatical mood.

Noun

modal verb (plural modal verbs)

  1. A verb whose primary function is to express grammatical mood.
    • Although at first glance combinations of two modal verbs might seem to be cases of grammatical distortion, their use is scientifically recognised.2019, Irina S. Lebedeva, Svetlana N. Orlova, “Semantics and pragmatics of the double modal ‘might could’”, in Training, Language and Culture, volume 3, number 2, →DOI
    Synonyms:
    modal, modal auxiliary, modal auxiliary verb

Synonyms of modal verb

Forms of modal verb

pluralmodal verbs

Questions about modal verb

What does modal verb mean?
Modal verb means a verb whose primary function is to express grammatical mood.
What part of speech is modal verb?
Modal verb is a noun.
What is the plural of modal verb?
The plural of modal verb is modal verbs.

Words near modal verb in the dictionary

  1. modal scale
  2. modal scales
  3. modal shift
  4. modal shifts
  5. modal stacking
  6. modal verb
  7. modal verbs
  8. modalise
  9. modalised
  10. modalises
  11. modalising

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: modal verb (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-modal verb.wav.

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