verb, verbal: a word that designates a situation (either an action or a state of affairs that remains through a period of time). Verbal structures include verbal stems, verbs (i.e. verbal words), verb phrases, clauses, and sentences. Structures which modify verbal structures are adverbial, and nominal structures often function as verbal arguments or complements. Verbal structures, together with nominal ones, are the most basic and important for building syntactic structures. [Spanish: verbo, verbal]