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distinctive

[ dih-stingk-tiv ]
/ dɪˈstɪŋk tɪv /
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See synonyms for: distinctive / distinctively / distinctiveness on Thesaurus.com

adjective
serving to distinguish; characteristic; distinguishing: the distinctive stripes of the zebra.
having a special quality, style, attractiveness, etc.; notable.
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In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

Origin of distinctive

1575–85; <Medieval Latin distinctīvus, equivalent to Latin distinct(us) distinct + -īvus-ive

OTHER WORDS FROM distinctive

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH distinctive

distinctive , distinguishable, distinguished
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use distinctive in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for distinctive

distinctive
/ (dɪˈstɪŋktɪv) /

adjective
serving or tending to distinguish
denoting one of a set of minimal features of a phoneme in a given language that serve to distinguish it from other phonemes. The distinctive features of /p/ in English are that it is voiceless, bilabial, non-nasal, and plosive; /b/ is voiced, bilabial, non-nasal, and plosive: the two differ by the distinctive feature of voice

Derived forms of distinctive

distinctively, adverbdistinctiveness, 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
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