Definition & Meaning of "adposition"

What is an "adposition"?

An adposition is a grammatical term that refers to words that express a relationship between a noun and other elements in a sentence. Adpositions include prepositions and postpositions. Prepositions, like "in," "on," and "at," come before a noun and show how that noun relates to other parts of the sentence, such as indicating location, direction, or time. For example, in the phrase "The book is on the table," "on" is the preposition linking "book" and "table." In some languages, postpositions serve a similar function but appear after the noun. For instance, in Hindi, "table par" means "on the table," with "par" acting as a postposition. The usage and position of adpositions can differ significantly across languages, affecting how relationships between nouns are expressed.