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.

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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

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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

In fact, the distinction between noun and adjective is inapplicable to English grammar, and should be replaced by a distinction between objective and attributive words.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 3 "Gordon, Lord George" to "Grasses" by Various

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

From The Approach to Philosophy by Perry, Ralph Barton

Milton inserts the adverbial clause in the predicate, which is not unusual; he then adds an attributive clause, which is not usual in English, though common in Greek and Latin.

From Milton's Comus by Bell, William

In the former case, we have a real attributive verb, in the latter a substantive verb, in which an attribute is considered as at rest, hence as an adjective.

From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Brinton, Daniel Garrison