pro-form


pro·form

or pro-form P0583850 (prō′fôrm′)n. An item in a sentence, typically a pronoun, verb, or adverb, that substitutes for a constituent phrase or clause, as the words he and so in the sentence He said so, with the pronoun he replacing a noun phrase such as the president and the adverb so replacing a clause such as that he would leave today.

pro-form

n (Grammar) a word having grammatical function but assuming the meaning of an antecedent word or phrase for which it substitutes: the word "does" is a pro-form for "understands Greek" in "I can't understand Greek but he does".

pro-form

(ˈproʊˌfɔrm)

n. a word used to replace or substitute for a word, phrase, or clause belonging to a given grammatical class, as a pronoun used to replace a noun or noun phrase, there used to replace an adverbial phrase of place, or so used to substitute for a clause, as in Have they gone? I think so. [1960–65]
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