collaborative

[kuh-lab-uh-rey-tiv, -er-uh-tiv]

adjective

1. characterized or accomplished by cooperation or working together.

   collaborative methods;

   a collaborative report.

2. relating to or involving several organizations, groups, people, etc., working together for a common purpose.

   My doctor is now part of a collaborative practice.

   Modern policing is trending toward collaborative law enforcement, where police officers work hand-in-hand with community leaders and neighborhood associations.

noun

1. a group of people working together for a common purpose.

   The collaborative of doctors was able to gather important new information about the illness by pooling anonymized patient data.

Other Word Forms

• collaboratively adverb
• uncollaborative adjective
• uncollaboratively adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of collaborative¹

collaborate + -ive

Example Sentences

“I think this collaborative model is going to be more fruitful because we really get a lot of interesting ideas,” Martinis said.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The company has learned what Michiganders have known for decades: The United Auto Workers bears no resemblance to the collaborative employee councils common in Germany.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

RV Investigator is part of the Marine National Facility, national collaborative research infrastructure funded by the Australian Government and operated by CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, on behalf of the nation.

Read more on Science Daily

Once a luxury reserved for big manufacturers, smaller, smarter, more flexible and less expensive “cobots”—collaborative robots—are bringing automation to every fabricator, no matter the size.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Working mostly collaboratively during this period, they made avant-garde films and an album, “Some Time in New York City,” devoted to topical songs with a political edge.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

When To Use

What does collaborative mean?

Collaborative is an adjective that describes an effort in which people work together (that is, one in which they collaborate).Collaborative is often used in a positive context to refer to two or more parties successfully working together on a goal or shared project. It’s also increasingly used as a noun for an organized joint effort.Example: The groundbreaking new album was a collaborative effort by the two musicians, who usually have very different styles.