demarcative

Also de·mar·ca·tion·al

[dih-mahr-key-tiv, dee-mahr-key-]

adjective

Linguistics.

1. (of a phonological feature) serving to indicate the beginning or end of each successive word in an utterance, as word-initial stress in Hungarian or penultimate stress in Polish.

Word History and Origins

Origin of demarcative¹

First recorded in 1950–55; demarcate + -ive