connective

[kuh-nek-tiv]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR connective ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

serving or tending to connect: connective remarks between chapters.

noun

something that connects.

Grammar. a word used to connect words, phrases, clauses, and sentences, as a conjunction.

Botany. the tissue joining the two cells of the anther.

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. 2019

Related Words for connectives

network, relationship, hookup, element, contact, channel, tie, association, obligation, knot, nexus, hitch, seam, in, ring, section, ligature, connective, member, interconnection

Examples from the Web for connectives

Historical Examples of connectives

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.
Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft
The probable position of the connectives is shown and the proportionate distances between ganglia are given.
Journal of Entomology and Zoology
Horace Gunthorp
Reconstruction from serial sections of the cerebro-pleural mass nerves and connectives of Malletia faba.
Journal of Entomology and Zoology
Horace Gunthorp

British Dictionary definitions for connectives

connective

adjective

serving to connect or capable of connecting

noun

a thing that connects

grammar logic

a less common word for conjunction (def. 3)
any word that connects phrases, clauses, or individual words
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

botany the tissue of a stamen that connects the two lobes of the anther

anatomy a nerve-fibre bundle connecting two nerve centres

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.