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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

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.

  • 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