syntax

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
syntax /ˈsɪntaks/

▶noun

• 1 the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences.

  ■ a set of rules for or an analysis of this.

• 2 the structure of statements in a computer language.

– derivatives
syntactic adjective,
syntactical adjective,
syntactically adverb.

– origin C16: from Fr. syntaxe, or via late L. from Gk suntaxis, from sun- ‘together’ + tassein ‘arrange’.