collaborative

American  

[kuh-lab-uh-rey-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

Etymology

Origin of collaborative

collaborate + -ive

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

"He's been collaborative in terms of the development of the script. We've worked very closely with him. And George, I think, picked up quite quickly that we were very serious about honouring what he'd done."

From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026

“One of the greatest things about ‘FBI’ is how collaborative it is,” says Scott, who drove the chase car.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

Professor Noemi Procopio, Professor of Forensic Science at the University of Lancashire, contributed to the international collaborative project.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026

It is a distinction that matters: Automation can put people out of work, but collaborative technologies leverage workers’ expertise, making them even more valuable.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

The plot line itself, to finish up, is largely the result of a rather unholy collaborative effort.

From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger