collaborative

American  

[kuh-lab-uh-ray-tiv, -er-uh-tiv] / kəˈlæb əˌreɪ tɪv, -ər ə tɪv /

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.

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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.

Usage

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.

Other Word Forms

• uncollaborative
  adjective
• collaboratively
  adverb
• uncollaboratively
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of collaborative

collaborate + -ive

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Explanation

The adjective collaborative describes something accomplished by working together with others. With a collaborative effort, a big job can be completed in very little time. When you collaborate, you cooperate, or join forces, with other people — working on a project, brainstorming ideas, even assigning responsibility for who will do what. So something that has these qualities is collaborative. From playing in a band to making a movie, feeding the students at a school to building a house, when you work toward a shared goal, it's collaborative.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

collaborative

"We have recently received feedback from various quarters regarding the collaborative merchandise with the Japanese television drama VIVANT," Sanrio's Chinese unit said on social media platform Weibo.

From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026

"We take the feedback we have received regarding this incident very seriously. Moving forward, we will strengthen our review processes for all future collaborative projects."

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026

While those people must be good at their roles, he believes that collaborative teams will outperform individuals who have a high level of functional brilliance, but don’t work well together.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

Coffield plans to provide their locations to MapBiomas, a collaborative network of universities, nongovernmental organizations, and technology companies that tracks fires and changes in land use throughout the Amazon.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026

The new paradigm of collaborative research pursued in the ramshackle Rad Lab surprised visitors bred in the insular working style still prevalent in academia.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

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