Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use syntax in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun

Syntax means a set of rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences. Example: “For quotations using this term, see Citations:syntax.”

More sentences with syntax

  • For quotations using this term, see Citations:syntax.From the entry syntaces
  • This book is aimed at any interested intelligent person, typically one with little background in syntax research.2025, Edward A. F. Gibson, “Introduction” (chapter 1), in Syntax: A Cognitive Approach, MIT Press, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 18–19. From the entry first principles
  • A linter checks your source code for syntax and style errors.2021, Felix Zumstein, Python for Excel, page 73. From the entry linter
  • That is, it is a collectional sign like parantheses are in a non-diagrammatic syntax.2020, Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen, Francesco Bellucci, Anglina Bobrova, Nathan Hayon, Mohammad Shafiei, “The Blot”, in Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen…. From the entry collectional
  • CBOR is based on JSON and fully supports the JSON syntax and data types.2018, Giancarlo Fortino, Carlos E. Palau, Antonio Guerrieri, Nora Cuppens, Frédéric Cuppens, Hakima Chaouchi, Alban Gabillon…. From the entry CBOR
  • It is well known that these grammars are inadequate to represent natural language syntax.2014, Brian MacWhinney, William O'Grady, The Handbook of Language Emergence, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 393. From the entry regular language
  • SAFL source is lexed and parsed into an abstract syntax tree.2004, Richard William Sharp, Higher-level hardware synthesis. From the entry lex
  • So it starts with the sensical, and through shifts in syntax and cadence, goes completely abstract.2004, John C. Welchman, quoting Mike Kelley, “Introduction”, in Mike Kelley, edited by John C. Welchman, Minor Histories: Statements…. From the entry sensical
  • What marks the consecutive is its special morphology and syntax indicating the temporal succession of actions.1986, Dieter Kastovsky, Aleksander Szwedek, Linguistics across Historical and Geographical Boundaries, →ISBN. From the entry consecutive
  • Figure 1-1 is an example of a railroad diagram, also called a syntax graph.1986, Tom Swan, Mastering Turbo Pascal, Hayden Books, →ISBN, page 8. From the entry railroad diagram
  • Every family and every set always had its private vocabulary and syntax and still has.1983 [1955], Evelyn Waugh, “An Open Letter to the Honble Mrs Peter Rodd (Nancy Mitford) … on a Very Serious Subject”, in The Essays…. From the entry NLU
  • Their principle in writing was to use Latino-Greek polysyllabics in a Latino-English syntax.1958, Harold Whitehall, “Introduction to Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language”, in Leonard F. Dean, Kenneth G. Wilson…. From the entry inkhorn term
  • The fifth is devoted to doctrine; the sixth and seventh to remarks on syntax and lexicology respectively.1949, Journal of Theological Studies. From the entry lexicology
  • There is some morphological syntax to adverbs in English: Many can be formed from adjectives, plus the suffix -ly.2025, Edward A. F. Gibson, “Dependency Grammar” (chapter 3), in Syntax: A Cognitive Approach, MIT Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 67. From the entry morphological
  • The good news about “The Silence” is that it’s engrossing and that, at 83, DeLillo’s syntax is as prickly as ever.2020 October 12, Dwight Garner, “Don DeLillo, an Old Hand at Paranoia and Dread, Meets Us Where We Are”, in New York Times. From the entry engrossing
  • The Vietnamese I own is the one you gave me, the one whose diction and syntax reach only the second-grade level.2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Jonathan Cape, page 31. From the entry Vietnamese
  • Kotlin is a programming language for the JVM that has concise syntax, is interoperable, safe, and tool friendly.2018, Mohamed Shazin Sadakath, Spring Boot 2.0 Projects, page 301. From the entry tool-friendly
  • Grammar can be subdivided into two main classes—dependency grammars and constituency grammars—based on their representations for linguistic syntax and structure.2016, Dipanjan Sarkar, Text Analytics with Python: A Practical Real-World Approach to Gaining Actionable Insights from your Data, Apress…. From the entry dependency grammar
  • Some pastebins even include syntax highlighting for common programming languages.2015, Ernesto Damiani, Fulvio Frati, Dirk Riehle, Open Source Systems: Adoption and Impact. From the entry syntax highlighting
  • Why would I change the syntax like that?2013 February 18, Steven D'Aprano, “Re: Differences creating tuples and collections.namedtuples”, in comp.lang.python (Usenet). From the entry because reasons
  • It documented the grammar, syntax, and lexicon of a language that Quijada had spent three decades inventing in his spare time.2012 December 24, Joshua Foer, “Utopian for Beginners”, in The New Yorker, archived from the original on 30 Jul 2018. From the entry document
  • The snakingly complex, ductile, and extended syntax of Yeats's 'While I, from that reed-throated whisperer' is in the mix here, also.2012, Fran Brearton, The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Poetry, page 578. From the entry snakingly
  • Instead it talks about resources, but nowhere defines what a resource is, or what the syntax is for describing one.2008 May 7, Robert Billing, “Are things getting difficult?”, in uk.comp.os.linux (Usenet). From the entry the seven bells
  • However, this bookkeeping is much less local syntax and sugar.2005, Bruce Ian Mills, Theoretical Introduction to Programming, page 180. From the entry sugar
  • When eventually taken into care and exposed to intensive language input, her vocabulary grew enormously, but her syntax never developed.2004, Andrew Radford, Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN…. From the entry poignant
  • It has two extra options using extended syntax.2003, Brotha G, “Repairing Microdrive Cartridges”, in comp.sys.sinclair (Usenet). From the entry catalogue
  • For example, note the difference in English in the positioning of head and complement between syntax and morphology.2001, Yehuda Falk, “Lexical-Functional Grammar”, in CSLI Publications, archived from the original on 01 Jul 2024, retrieved 21 Feb 2014. From the entry morphology
  • Metasyntactic values, in the sense I'm using here, are descriptive of syntax, as for example the nonterminals of a Chomsky grammar.2001, John N. Shutt, What is Grammar?. From the entry metasyntactic
  • Clitic resumptive pronouns are a major feature in Somali syntax.1995 January, Marco Svolacchia, Lunella Mereu, Annarita Puglielli, “Aspects of Discourse Configurationality in Somali”, in Katalin É.…. From the entry irregardless
  • For example, a syntax rule presented by text, and its corresponding concept illustrated by a cartoon have a close relation.1993, B. Z. Barta, John Eccleston, Rudolf Hambusch, Computer mediated education of information technology professionals and advanced…. From the entry hyperstructure
  • For in speaking of "syntax," I have employed a concept that is used about the use of words.1993, William H. Poteat, James M. Nickell, James W. Stines, The Primacy of Persons and the Language of Culture: Essays. From the entry wordly
  • Mäkhtumquli avoids the altered syntax so typical of the Chagatay ghazal and in particular the Persian syntactic constructions.1992, Walter Feldman, “Interpreting the Poetry of Mäkhtumquli”, in Jo-Ann Gross, editor, Muslims in Central Asia: Expressions of Identity…. From the entry Classical Azerbaijani
  • As to the meanings of the individual words or the percumbent rules of syntax, I haven't a clue.1991 April 23, The Kids in the Hall, “Episode 19”, in The Kids in the Hall, season 2, episode 19, sketch 4). From the entry percumbent
  • How's tricks?: Like that's bogus syntax, dude?1990 October 8, Steve Senator, “Opportunity for Amusement (Was: Blasted 8 digit error codes!)”, in comp.unix.aix (Usenet), archived from…. From the entry skule
  • Prescott avoids what he calls “inkhorn terms,” or involved syntax, or the ideas that might call for these.1972 July 16, “The perils and rewards of reviewing”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry inkhorn term
  • It is not that the intellect (or syntax!) “spatializes time”.1960 July, Louis O[tto] Mink, “Time, McTaggart and Pickwickian Language”, in A[nthony] D[ouglas] Woozley, editor, The Philosophical…. From the entry connexivity
  • Lispers famously claim their language “has no syntax”, while Smalltalkers proudly show that you can fit the entire grammar on an index card.2021, Robert Nystrom, Crafting Interpreters, Genever Benning, →ISBN. From the entry Smalltalker
  • C++ lets you invoke an operator function either by calling the function or by using the overloaded operator with its usual syntax.2011, Stephen Prata, C++ Primer Plus. From the entry invoke
  • This latter format, called wikitext, is written by means of a simplified markup language and its style and syntax vary, depending on the different implementations.2010, Francisco V. Cipolla-Ficarra, Quality and Communicability for Interactive Hypermedia Systems. From the entry wikitext
  • Along with runtime errors, two other errors we saw earlier round out the JavaScript bug trifecta: syntax errors, logic errors, and runtime errors.2007, Michael Morrison, Head First JavaScript, page 525. From the entry trifecta

Meaning of syntax

  1. noun A set of rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences.
  2. noun The formal rules of formulating the statements of a computer language.
  3. noun The study of the structure of phrases, sentences, and language.

Full definition of syntax

Questions about syntax in a sentence

How do you use syntax in a sentence?
Syntax is used as a noun. For example: “For quotations using this term, see Citations:syntax.”
What is a short sentence with syntax?
“For quotations using this term, see Citations:syntax.”
What does syntax mean?
Syntax means a set of rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: syntax (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use syntax in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/syntax. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.