Adjectivesadjectives

Adjectivesadjectives is not a standard term in linguistics or grammar. It does not appear in major reference works, and as a coined phrase it can be interpreted in several ways. Used in isolation, the label invites discussion of how adjectives interact with other adjectives or how compound modifier constructions function in language.

One interpretation is that adjectivesadjectives refers to adjectives that describe or modify other adjectives through degree or intensity modifiers. In English, adverbs such as very, extremely, or somewhat modify adjectives, as in very tall or extremely bright. This pattern shows how an adjective can be intensified by another word, even though the syntactic relation is between an adverb and an adjective rather than between two adjectives directly.

A second interpretation treats adjectivesadjectives as referring to compound adjectives formed from multiple adjectives that together modify a noun. Examples include red-hot, blue-green, or long-lasting. In these cases, two or more adjectives form a single descriptive unit and often appear with hyphenation, behaving as a single modifier of the noun that follows.

A third interpretation considers adjective stacking within noun phrases, where several adjectives describe a noun in sequence (for example, a big old red balloon). Each adjective contributes descriptive content, but they do not modify each other outright; rather, they collectively refine the noun's meaning. This usage is common in descriptive prose and is typically analyzed through standard adjective order and noun phrase structure.

In practice, the term is mostly encountered as a playful label rather than a formal category. Standard terminology for these phenomena includes intensity modifiers, compound adjectives, and adjective-noun phrases.