DEGREE

DEGREE.
1. A grammatical category for items of language used to express relative intensity: very much, of a verb in I admire them very much; highly, of an adjective in highly intelligent; very, of an adverb in very often; big, of a noun in a big fool; dead, of a preposition in They're dead against it. Such intensifiers or words of degree are used with other words that are gradable (that is, on a scale of intensity). They may indicate a relatively high or low point: slightly, somewhat, hardly, a bit.

2. Three types of comparison applied to gradable adjectives and adverbs: to a high degree (bigger, biggest); to the same degree (as big as), and with a preceding negative (not so big as); to a lower degree (less big, least big). Non-extreme forms may be followed by comparative clauses: ‘Jeremy is taller than his parents (are)’; ‘Naomi is less tall than Ruth (is)’; ‘Doreen is as tall as Leslie (is).’ Higher-degree comparisons may be expressed by inflections (the absolute or positive degree happy, the comparative degree happier, and the superlative degree happiest) or periphrastically, in combination with more for comparatives (more happy) and most for superlatives (most happy). Monosyllabic adjectives (young, sad, small) generally take inflections, polysyllabic adjectives (beautiful) periphrastic more/most. Many disyllabic adjectives take either form: commoner/more common, commonest/most common. Most adverbs allow only periphrastic comparison (happily/more happily/most happily), but a few are suppletive: badly/worse/worst; well/better/best. See PERIPHRASIS, SUPPLETION.