determiner

noun

1. Someone or something that determines, or helps to determine, something else.

   “Near-synonym: definer”

   “In quality management, the determiners of quality sometimes differ across use cases.”

   “The "steel-yards" and "measures" were the only determiners of weight and quantity — as the hour-glass and sun dial were of time — possessed at first (so far as appears) by the passengers of the Pilgrim ship […]”

2. Someone or something that determines, or helps to determine, something else.

   “Near-synonyms: decider, decisor, disposer, definer, arbiter, arbitrator, decisionmaker”

   “He is the determiner [usually referring to God (in theological contexts) and job roles (in administrative contexts)]”

   “Who is the determiner? [administratively or theologically]”

   “The software is the determiner if no input is given before the prompt times out.”

3. A member of a class of words functioning in a noun phrase to identify or distinguish a referent without describing or modifying it.

   “Near-synonym: determinative (broadly synonymous)”

   “Definite articles, indefinite articles, and cardinal numbers acting as quantifiers are types of determiners.”

4. A dependent function in a noun phrase that marks it as definite or indefinite. This function is usually filled by words in the determinative class but may be filled by other elements such as a genitive pronoun.

   “Near-synonym: determinative (broadly synonymous)”

   “In the sentence "Many people voted for him," the word many is a determiner.”