🎀 A hanging object 🏒 A tricky player ✏️ A misplaced word

dangler

8.6

A word or phrase not clearly attached to the part of a sentence it describes

noun
/ˈdæŋɡlər/

Jargon

: modificador colgante

He pointed out the dangler in the sentence that left the readers guessing who the writer was talking about.

Examples

In her essay, she used a dangler that confused the readers about the main idea of the paragraph.
Normalogical danglers is that much simpler argument, and here it is.
The sentence contained a problematic dangler that made it unclear what the subject was referring to.

Synonyms

dangling participle

vsdangler

Specialized

1 8.4

A phrase that describes an action but is not linked to the person or thing, causing confusion

is a casual term covering any modifier not clearly attached

dangling modifier

vsdangler

Specialized

8.3

A word or phrase in a sentence placed so it seems to describe the wrong thing and confuses the reader

is the informal name for that unclear attachment in a sentence

misplaced modifier

vsdangler

Specialized

8.4

A word or phrase placed so it seems to describe the wrong part of a sentence and confuses the meaning

is an informal label for this unclear placement rather than a technical term

How Attached

modifier

Specialized

5 4.4

misplaced modifier

Specialized

8.4

dangler

Jargon

8.6

Surface Forms

dangler singular

danglers plural

Morphology

dangler = dangle (semi-transparent) = dangle + er

Built from 'dangle' + '-er' metaphorically to name a dangling modifier; the formation is regular but the grammatical application is specialized.

Etymology

Dangler comes from dangle ('to hang and swing') and the idea of 'hanging loose', so in writing a dangler is a word or phrase that 'hangs' without a clear place and makes the sentence unclear.