Which term describes a group of words that lacks a subject or verb or fails to express a complete thought?

• A. Sentence
• B. Sentence fragment
• C. Slang
• D. Spiral search pattern

Answer: (B)

A complete sentence must have a subject and a predicate and express a full thought. A group of words that misses a subject or a verb, or does not convey a complete idea, is a sentence fragment. This term fits perfectly because fragments are incomplete pieces that can look like sentences but fail to stand on their own as a complete thought. For example, “Running down the street” lacks a subject and a finite verb to form a complete thought, so it’s a fragment, whereas “She is running down the street” has both subject and verb and expresses a complete idea. Slang is informal language, not a structural term for sentence completeness, and a spiral search pattern is unrelated to sentence construction.