verbify

Verbify is the act of turning a word—typically a noun or adjective—into a verb. The term 'verbify' itself is a denominal verb formed from 'verb' plus the suffix -ify, meaning to cause to be a verb. In linguistic terminology, the general process is called denominal verb formation or verbification.

In English, many verbs originate by verbifying nouns or other words, a process also known as conversion or zero-derivation. Examples include to Google someone, to email a message, to text a friend, to bookmark a page, or to friend someone on a social network. Some verbifications become fully productive, entering common usage; others are playful, niche, or temporary. Brand names, product names, and acronyms are frequent sources, and the capitalization of the verb form varies by style.

Linguists study verbification to understand morphosyntactic productivity and word formation constraints. In computational linguistics, verbification can be used in text generation, paraphrasing, or style transfer tasks. In formal writing, some style guides discourage unnecessary verbification, while others view it as a natural part of language evolution.