redemptive
Americanadjective
-
serving to redeem.
-
of, relating to, or centering on redemption or salvation.
redemptive religions.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of redemptive
First recorded in 1640–50; redempt(ion) + -ive
Explanation
Anything redemptive saves someone from making a mistake or being evil. Many people describe love as redemptive, healing even those who have done terrible things in the past. The adjective redemptive comes from the noun redemption, and both words have historically been used in a religious way, to mean "delivering (or saving) from sin" or "deliverance from sin." Saving someone's mortal soul, in other words, is redemptive. The Latin root, redimere, means "to get back" or "to buy back."
Vocabulary lists containing redemptive
"I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King Jr.
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Vocabulary from texts about the 1963 March on Washington
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myPerspectives 9.3
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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.
“The Wound Is Where the Light Enters” not only reveals the system’s horrors, but also celebrates the redemptive power of hope, intellect and community.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Earnestness triggered our deepest national crisis in the 1860s and fueled the redemptive civil-rights movement a century later.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
"The record really takes you through a journey, with some powerful themes around conflict, but Olivia leaves you with a track about the redemptive power of love, which is a really poignant final note".
From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2026
There is no way to make the social revolution America is experiencing painless, but it is still in our power to make it redemptive.
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2025
And history has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive.
From "While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement" by Carolyn Maull McKinstry
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
