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.
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            Made she no verbal question?          --Shak.
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            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.
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   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.
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            And loses, though but verbal, his reward. --Milton.
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            Mere verbal refinements, instead of substantial
            knowledge.                            --Whewell.
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   3. Having word answering to word; word for word; literal; as,
      a verbal translation.
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   4. Abounding with words; verbose. [Obs.] --Shak.
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   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.
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   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.
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	Verbal \Ver"bal\, n. (Gram.)
   A noun derived from a verb.
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	verbal
    adj 1: communicated in the form of words; "verbal imagery"; "a
           verbal protest"
    2: of or relating to or formed from words in general; "verbal
       ability"
    3: of or relating to or formed from a verb; "verbal adjectives
       like `running' in `hot and cold running water'"
    4: relating to or having facility in the use of words; "a good
       poet is a verbal artist"; "a merely verbal writer who
       sacrifices content to sound"; "verbal aptitude" [ant:
       mathematical, numerical]
    5: expressed in spoken words; "a verbal contract"
    6: prolix; "you put me to forget a lady's manners by being so
       verbal"- Shakespeare

	

	140 Moby Thesaurus words for "verbal":
   adjectival, adverbial, answering, articulated, attributive,
   authentic, bona fide, candid, card-carrying, colloquial,
   communicating, communicational, communional, conjunctive,
   conversational, copulative, correct, dinkum, enunciated, expressed,
   following the letter, formal, functional, genuine, glossematic,
   good, grammatic, honest, honest-to-God, iconic, inartificial,
   interacting, interactional, interactive, intercommunicational,
   intercommunicative, intercommunional, interresponsive,
   interrogative, interrogatory, intransitive, lawful, legitimate,
   lexemic, lexical, lifelike, lingual, linguistic, linking, literal,
   morphemic, natural, naturalistic, nominal, nuncupative, oral,
   original, parol, participial, phrasal, postpositional,
   prepositional, pronominal, pronounced, pure, questioning, real,
   realistic, responsive, rightful, said, semantic, semantological,
   semasiological, sememic, semiotic, simon-pure, simple, sincere,
   sounded, speech, spoken, sterling, structural, substantive,
   sure-enough, symbolic, syntactic, tagmemic, telepathic,
   traditional, transitive, transmissional, true to life,
   true to nature, true to reality, unadulterated, unaffected,
   unassumed, unassuming, uncolored, unconcocted, uncopied,
   uncounterfeited, undisguised, undisguising, undistorted,
   unexaggerated, unfabricated, unfanciful, unfeigned, unfeigning,
   unfictitious, unflattering, unimagined, unimitated, uninvented,
   unpretended, unpretending, unqualified, unromantic, unsimulated,
   unspecious, unsynthetic, unvarnished, unwritten, uttered, verbatim,
   veridical, verisimilar, viva voce, vocabular, vocabulary, vocal,
   vocalized, voiced, voiceful, word, word-for-word, word-of-mouth

	

	VERBAL. Parol; by word of mouth; as verbal agreement; verbal evidence. Not 
in writing.