determiner

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree English determine Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzijos Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English determiner From determine + -er.

1. Someone or something that determines, or helps to determine, something else.

   “Near-synonym: definer”

   “In quality management, the determiners of quality sometimes differ across use cases.”

2. Someone or something that determines, or helps to determine, something else.

   “Near-synonyms: decider, decisor, disposer, definer, arbiter, arbitrator, decisionmaker”

   “He is the determiner [usually referring to God (in theological contexts) and job roles (in administrative contexts)]”

3. A member of a class of words functioning in a noun phrase to identify or distinguish a referent without describing or modifying it.

   “Near-synonym: determinative (broadly synonymous)”

   “Definite articles, indefinite articles, and cardinal numbers acting as quantifiers are types of determiners.”

4. A dependent function in a noun phrase that marks it as definite or indefinite. This function is usually filled by words in the determinative class but may be filled by other elements such as a genitive pronoun.

   “Near-synonym: determinative (broadly synonymous)”

   “In the sentence "Many people voted for him," the word many is a determiner.”