Definition of "adjective" []

• The part of speech that modifies a noun or other substantive by limiting, qualifying, or specifying and distinguished in English morphologically by one of several suffixes, such as -able, -ous, -er, and -est, or syntactically by position directly preceding a noun or nominal phrase. (noun)
• Any of the words belonging to this part of speech, such as white in the phrase a white house. (noun)
• Adjectival: an adjective clause. (adjective)
• Law Prescriptive; remedial: adjective law. (adjective)
• Not standing alone; derivative or dependent. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "An adjective may, in general, be distinguished from an _adverb_ by this rule: when a word qualifies a _noun_ or _pronoun_, it is an adjective, but when it qualifies a _verb, participle, adjective_, or _adverb_, it is an adverb."
• "Such an adjective is called an _adjective of three endings_."
• "Find them, and give the reason.] [Footnote 2: When a noun is modified by both a genitive and an adjective, a favorite order of words is _adjective, genitive, noun_.] [Footnote 3: A modifying genitive often stands between a preposition and its object.] *****"