modifier

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

These genes are known as epigenetic modifier genes because they influence gene activity by adding chemical groups to DNA and altering its structure.

From Science Daily • Apr. 7, 2026

But Helen Knight, NICE’s director of medicines evaluation, argues that the severity modifier is working.

From BBC • Oct. 17, 2024

“Recycled is a positive modifier in most contexts but that isn’t necessarily the case when it comes to gold or silver,” she said.

From New York Times • Jan. 29, 2024

Lynch’s dystopian novel, which won the Booker Prize on Sunday, is at once so particularly Irish yet so universally familiar that it deserves the overused modifier “Kafkaesque.”

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 29, 2023

Toni Morrison’s isn’t functioning as a modifier, which shades the meaning of genius, but as a determiner, which pins down its referent, in the same way that an article like the or this would do.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker