adjective
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tending or designed to arouse emotion
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of or characterized by emotion
Usage
Emotional is preferred to emotive when describing a display of emotion: he was given an emotional (not emotive ) welcome
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of emotive
Explanation
Something described as emotive shows feeling. If you consider women more emotive than men, you think that women are more comfortable sharing their feelings than men. While the word emotive is similar to the word emotional, it's important to note that the two aren't interchangeable. Emotive is used with regard to something that makes you have intense feelings rather than just having intense feelings. For example, an emotive conversation will result in getting people's emotions riled up, while an emotional conversation is one in which people go into it with a lot of intense feelings already.
Vocabulary lists containing emotive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A roar rang out as his band played the opening chords of Night Changes, an emotive song that has become an unofficial tribute track for his bandmate Liam Payne following his death in 2024.
From BBC • May 23, 2026
The revelation for Paris was to turn “Satyagraha” into both a dark political exercise as well as an emotive dance-opera.
From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2026
“The emotive nature of the category, alongside these durable levers that we bring to market, puts us in a category which is relatively much more inert to some of these macro headwinds,” Singh said.
From Barron's • May 19, 2026
A prime minister not noted for hyperbolic or emotive language in public has unleashed a volley of vitriol - a chain of events "staggering," "shocking," "unforgivable," he claims.
From BBC • Apr. 17, 2026
Dark and emotive, they suggested a trace of ex-otic blood in his heritage—Greek, maybe, or Chippewa—and conveyed a vulnerability that made Westerberg want to take the kid under his wing.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
