discursive
passing aimlessly from one subject to another; digressive; rambling.
proceeding by reasoning or argument rather than intuition.
Origin of discursive
1Other words for discursive
Other words from discursive
- dis·cur·sive·ly, adverb
- dis·cur·sive·ness, noun
- non·dis·cur·sive, adjective
- non·dis·cur·sive·ly, adverb
- non·dis·cur·sive·ness, noun
Words Nearby discursive
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use discursive in a sentence
The questions linger throughout this at times maddeningly discursive novel.
Now Intelligence possesses them by thought, a thought which is not discursive (but intuitive).
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 3 | Plotinos (Plotinus)Yet the impulse to discursive commentary must be checked, for plucking flowers is a distraction from comparative botany.
Vie de Bohme | Orlo WilliamsThe discursive faculty then becomes what our Shakespeare, with happy precision, calls "discourse of reason."
Aids to Reflection | Samuel Taylor ColeridgeWho is more discursive than the Autocrat, the Czar of table-talkers; and whose productions are more charming or wiser?
The evidence of such principles is established by a long and discursive psychological discussion.
The English Utilitarians, Volume I. | Leslie Stephen
British Dictionary definitions for discursive
/ (dɪˈskɜːsɪv) /
passing from one topic to another, usually in an unmethodical way; digressive
philosophy of or relating to knowledge obtained by reason and argument rather than intuition: Compare dianoetic
Origin of discursive
1Derived forms of discursive
- discursively, adverb
- discursiveness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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