Verbal may mean:
- Non-finite verb, a verb form that functions both as a verb and as another lexical category.
- A word or group of words that functions as a verb by serving as the head of a verb phrase. (In some languages, adjectives are verbals.)
- Pertaining to language or the use of words in general (be it spoken or written) as opposed to non-verbal expression, or to spoken words in particular (although, this is usually a common misuse where "oral" is the correct term, e.g. "oral" v. "written" contract -- rather than "verbal" v. "written"). Examples:
- Verbal abuse
- Verbal arithmetic
- Verbal enterprise, the ongoing open discussion on the positives and negatives of a business project completed.
- People
- Roger "Verbal" Kint, a major character in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects.
- Verbal (rapper), a Japanese rapper and music producer, and member of M-Flo, Mic Banditz and Teriyaki Boyz
- Other uses
- Verbal Arts Centre, Northern Ireland; the publisher of Verbal magazine
- Verbal Behavior, a book by B. F. Skinner
- Verbal Remixes & Collaborations, an EP album by Amon Tobin
Famous quotes containing the word verbal:
“The French are a tremendously verbal race: they kill you with their assurances, their repetitions, their reasons, their platitudes, their formulae, their propositions, their solutions.”
—Christina Stead (1902–1983)
“A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“The verbal poetical texture of Shakespeare is the greatest the world has known, and is immensely superior to the structure of his plays as plays. With Shakespeare it is the metaphor that is the thing, not the play.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)