a word that comes before a noun, pronoun, or the ‘-ing’ form of a verb, and shows its relation to another part of the sentence. For example in the sentences ‘Was anyone injured in the accident?’, ‘To save water, take a shower instead of a bath’, and ‘Don’t leave without finishing your dinner’, the words ‘in’, ‘instead of’ and ‘without’ are prepositions.
Synonyms and related words
Prepositions
aboard
against
amid
derived word
prepositional
adjective
Synonyms and related words
Prepositions
aboard
against
amid
preposition
noun countable linguistics
US /ˌprepəˈzɪʃ(ə)n/
Word Forms
singular
preposition
plural
prepositions
DEFINITIONS1
1
a word that comes before a noun, pronoun, or the ‘-ing’ form of a verb, and shows its relation to another part of the sentence. For example in the sentences ‘Was anyone injured in the accident?’, ‘To save water, take a shower instead of a bath’, and ‘Don’t leave without finishing your dinner’, the words ‘in’, ‘instead of’ and ‘without’ are prepositions.