missive
Americannoun
adjective
noun
-
a formal or official letter
-
a formal word for letter
adjective
Etymology
Origin of missive
1400–50; late Middle English ( letter ) missive < Medieval Latin ( littera ) missīva sent (letter), equivalent to Latin miss ( us ) (past participle of mittere to send) + -īva, feminine of -īvus -ive
Explanation
A missive usually refers to the old-school style of hand-written communication on paper (remember that?), but these days you also might hear an email called a missive. No matter how you deliver it, a missive is a message. The noun missive comes from the Latin word missus, meaning "to send." You may have heard the phrase, "fire off a missive," meaning a note, memo or dispatch that was written and sent with urgency and conveyed an important message. It might have been a missive sent from a commander to the troops, telling them of a change in the battle plan. Or, maybe it was an urgent love letter to the commander's wife back home, telling her to tie a yellow ribbon round the ole oak tree...
Vocabulary lists containing missive
Send a Message: Mit and Miss
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Born a Crime
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Yea, & the Rest, who will line up Tomorrow & belabor my Quill, tho’ they hear this Missive is already sent.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
In "The King's Missive, and Other Poems," published in 1881, the most notable piece is "The Lost Occasion," a poem on Daniel Webster, finer even than the much-admired "Ichabod," published many years previously.
From John Greenleaf Whittier His Life, Genius, and Writings by Kennedy, W. Sloane
An Unexpected Missive "A letter for you, Mother," Alden tossed a violet-scented envelope into the old lady's lap as he spoke, and stood there, waiting.
From Master of the Vineyard by Reed, Myrtle
The poem of "The King's Missive" calls for such extended discussion that a brief chapter shall be devoted to it.
From John Greenleaf Whittier His Life, Genius, and Writings by Kennedy, W. Sloane
But, at the last, a Missive came That put the Copestone to his Fame.
From Collected Poems In Two Volumes, Vol. II by Dobson, Austin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
