attributive

American  

[uh-trib-yuh-tiv] / əˈtrɪb yə tɪv /

adjective

1. pertaining to or having the character of attribution or an attribute.

2. Grammar. of or relating to an adjective or noun that is directly adjacent to, in English usually preceding, the noun it modifies, without any intervening linking verb, as the adjective sunny in a sunny day or the noun television in a television screen.

---

noun

1. Grammar. an attributive word, especially an adjective.

attributive British  

/ əˈtrɪbjʊtɪv /

adjective

1. relating to an attribute

2. grammar (of an adjective or adjectival phrase) modifying a noun and constituting part of the same noun phrase, in English normally preceding the noun, as black in Fido is a black dog (as opposed to Fido is black ) Compare predicative

3. philosophy relative to an understood domain, as small in that elephant is small

---

noun

1. an attributive adjective

Other Word Forms

• attributively
  adverb
• attributiveness
  noun
• nonattributive
  adjective
• nonattributively
  adverb
• nonattributiveness
  noun
• unattributive
  adjective
• unattributively
  adverb
• unattributiveness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of attributive

First recorded in 1600–10

Example Sentences

I make my bread deciding whether a word is an attributive noun or adjective, parsing adverbial uses over conjunctive uses, writing those delightfully boring usage notes in your dictionary.

From The Guardian • Mar. 4, 2013

It was a map of that region of sky-scrapers which you seem to think not justly beyond the scope of attributive sublimity.

From Imaginary Interviews by Howells, William Dean

In other words, let the bodies be regarded as attributive and the forces as substantive.

From The Approach to Philosophy by Perry, Ralph Barton

But if the prefixed noun ends in e, this e is changed to a in the attributive of the compound; e.g., t�umasaqi 'the tip of the nail,' canacugui 'iron nails.'

From Diego Collado's Grammar of the Japanese Language by Spear, Richard L.

We will notice the attributive features of these witnesses as they are related by John in this chapter—that is, Rev. xi.

From The Lost Ten Tribes, and 1882 by Wild, Joseph