An adjective is a word that describes a quality or attribute of a person, place or thing. Consider the following sentence: " It was a joyful day." In that sentence, the word " joyful" is the adjective that describes the subject of the sentence, the day. It is impossible to count the number of different adjectives in the English language because it is impossible to count the number of words in the
. language until all authorities can agree on what actually constitutes a word. Adjectives that begin with the letter " J" alone include jagged, jaded, jerky, jovial, jingoistic, jejune, jittery, jingly, jokey, jocund, jumbo, just, jazzy, jolly, jumbo, juvenile, jinxed, judicial and jubilant to name a few.The Oxford English Dictionary, whose second edition consists of nearly a quarter of a million distinct English words, has over six hundred thousand words in its online edition. However, any of the aforementioned " J" adjectives could constitute more than one word. Consider the word " just." It is an adjective meaning " guided by truth, reason, justice and fairness" but it is also an adverb that can mean " only a moment before," or " exactly or precisely" when used as that part of speech; there are even more definitions. The sentence, " I just do not think it was a just ruling," uses the word as an adverb first and then as an adjective. In the first part of the sentence, " I just do not think," the word " just" is an adverb that modifies the statement " I do not think." In the second part of the statement, " it was a just ruling," the word " just" is an adjective to describe the fairness of the ruling. This is an example of why linguists and others who contribute to dictionaries cannot agree whether it or other words with multiple definitions and parts of speech constitute one word or two. The different inflections and definitions of words, along with the fact that it is possible to use many individual words as different parts of speech, makes it virtually impossible to determine an exact number of words in the English language. More reference links: http://oxforddictionaries.com/page/93 http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/howmany.htm
