combinative

[ kom-buh-ney-tiv, kuhm-bahy-nuh- ]
See synonyms for combinative on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. tending or serving to combine.

  2. of, relating to, or resulting from combination.

Origin of combinative

1
First recorded in 1850–55; combinat(ion) + -ive

Other words from combinative

  • non·com·bi·na·tive, adjective
  • un·com·bi·na·tive, adjective

Words Nearby combinative

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use combinative in a sentence

  • Primitive man was a combinative beast, and because of it he rose to primacy over all the animals.

    The Iron Heel | Jack London
  • They have great imagination, but it is the "combinative" imagination rather than the free poetic fancy of the Celt.

    The Old World in the New | Edward Alsworth Ross
  • This requires a higher type of mental association (combinative  power) than mere enumeration.

    The Measurement of Intelligence | Lewis Madison Terman

British Dictionary definitions for combinative

combinative

combinatorial (ˌkɒmbɪnəˈtɔːrɪəl) or combinatory (ˈkɒmbɪnətərɪ, -trɪ)

/ (ˈkɒmbɪˌneɪtɪv, -nətɪv) /


adjective
  1. resulting from being, tending to be, or able to be joined or mixed together

  2. linguistics (of a sound change) occurring only in specific contexts or as a result of some other factor, such as change of stress within a word: Compare isolative (def. 1)

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