What is "verbal noun"

Verbal \Ver"bal\, a. [F., fr. L. verbalis. See Verb.]

1. Expressed in words, whether spoken or written, but commonly in spoken words; hence, spoken; oral; not written; as, a verbal contract; verbal testimony.

   Made she no verbal question?
   --Shak.

   We subjoin an engraving . . . which will give the reader a far better notion of the structure than any verbal description could convey to the mind.
   --Mayhew.

2. Consisting in, or having to do with, words only; dealing with words rather than with the ideas intended to be conveyed; as, a verbal critic; a verbal change.

   And loses, though but verbal, his reward.
   --Milton.

   Mere verbal refinements, instead of substantial knowledge.
   --Whewell.

3. Having word answering to word; word for word; literal; as, a verbal translation.

4. Abounding with words; verbose. [Obs.]
   --Shak.

5. (Gram.) Of or pertaining to a verb; as, a verbal group; derived directly from a verb; as, a verbal noun; used in forming verbs; as, a verbal prefix.

   Verbal inspiration. See under Inspiration.

   Verbal noun (Gram.), a noun derived directly from a verb or verb stem; a verbal. The term is specifically applied to infinitives, and nouns ending in -ing, esp. to the latter. See Gerund, and -ing, 2. See also, Infinitive mood, under Infinitive.

n. (context grammar English) A noun that is morphologically related to a verb and similar to it in meaning; in English, this might be a gerund (ending in ''-ing''), infinitive, or other noun derived from a verb.

n. a noun that is derived from a verb [syn: deverbal noun]

A verbal noun is a noun formed from or otherwise corresponding to a verb. Different languages have different types of verbal noun and different ways of forming and using them. An example of a verbal noun in English is the word singing in the sentence "Singing is fun" (this is a noun formed from the verb sing). Verbal nouns may be non-finite verb forms such as infinitives or gerunds in English (or Latin) usage. They may also be "pure" verbal nouns, formed from verbs, but behaving grammatically entirely like nouns rather than verbs (not taking direct objects, for example). Such cases may also be called deverbal nouns.