Definition & Meaning of "part of speech"

What is "part of speech"?

Part of speech is a grammatical category that describes the role a word plays in a sentence. The main parts of speech include nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. Each part of speech serves a specific function, such as naming people or things, replacing nouns, expressing actions or states of being, describing nouns, modifying verbs or adjectives, showing relationships between words, connecting phrases or clauses, and expressing emotions. Understanding the different parts of speech is essential for constructing clear and grammatically correct sentences, as it helps identify how words interact within a sentence.