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connective

[kuh-nek-tiv]
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adjective
  1. serving or tending to connect: connective remarks between chapters.
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noun
  1. something that connects.
  2. Grammar. a word used to connect words, phrases, clauses, and sentences, as a conjunction.
  3. Botany. the tissue joining the two cells of the anther.
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Origin of connective

First recorded in 1645–55; connect + -ive
Related formscon·nec·tive·ly, adverbcon·nec·tiv·i·ty [kon-ek-tiv-i-tee] /ˌkɒn ɛkˈtɪv ɪ ti/, nounnon·con·nec·tive, adjective, nounnon·con·nec·tive·ly, adverbnon·con·nec·tiv·i·ty, nounpre·con·nec·tive, adjectivequa·si-con·nec·tive, adjectivequa·si-con·nec·tive·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for connectives

Historical Examples

  • The asyndeton in this distich is odd, given the preceding series of connectives.

    The Last Poems of Ovid

    Ovid

  • Here the words by and from are connectives; but they do more than connect.

    An English Grammar

    W. M. Baskervill and J. W. Sewell

  • In these combinations, the vowels e and o are sometimes used as connectives.

  • The probable position of the connectives is shown and the proportionate distances between ganglia are given.

  • Reconstruction from serial sections of the cerebro-pleural mass nerves and connectives of Malletia faba.

British Dictionary definitions for connectives

connective

adjective
  1. serving to connect or capable of connecting
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noun
  1. a thing that connects
  2. grammar logic
    1. a less common word for conjunction (def. 3)
    2. any word that connects phrases, clauses, or individual words
    3. a symbol used in a formal language in the construction of compound sentences from simpler sentences, corresponding to terms such as or, and, not, etc, in ordinary speech
  3. botany the tissue of a stamen that connects the two lobes of the anther
  4. anatomy a nerve-fibre bundle connecting two nerve centres
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Derived Formsconnectively, adverbconnectivity (ˌkɒnɛkˈtɪvɪtɪ), noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for connectives

connective

adj.

1650s, from connect + -ive (if from Latin, it likely would have been *connexive). Connective tissue is from 1839.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper