Definitions

1. noun

A word that cannot stand alone in a sentence and is attached to another word to form a phrase, especially a pronoun or a determiner.

“The clitic ‘him’ is attached to the verb ‘called’ in the sentence ‘They called him’.”

2. verb

To attach a clitic to a word or phrase.

“The word ‘will’ was cliticized to ‘I’, resulting in ‘I’ll’.”

3. linguistics

A term used in linguistics to describe a word or sound that is closely tied to another word or sound.

“In many languages, clitics are used to indicate grammatical relationships between words.”