informative
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of informative
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English: “formative,” from Medieval Latin infōrmātīvus, from Latin infōrmāt(us) “given form to” (past participle of infōrmāre “to give form to, instruct, shape”; see inform 1) + -īvus -ive
Explanation
Use the adjective informative to describe something that gives you some kind of useful information, like an informative book about identifying the mushrooms you find growing wild in the woods near your house. When something is informative, it's usually educational and full of facts — like an informative text book or an informative tour of the Hindu temples of northern India. If you learn a lot from something, you can call it informative. The Latin root of informative is the word informare, which means "to shape, train, instruct, or educate." Something that does those things for you is informative.
Vocabulary lists containing informative
Shape Up: Form
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Keystone Exams: English Composition Glossary
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Speech and Debate
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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.
“An individual signal is not all that informative, but when they fire consistently over weeks or even months, the false-positive rate tends to go down,” Goepfert said.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
Incomplete fossils are often viewed as less informative than nearly complete skeletons.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026
All the various formats have their proponents and the conversations about them have been entertaining and informative, but no matter the film or screen size, it’s a very good movie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
But it’s in some ways more informative because its price is so sensitive to changing economic assumptions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
The footage he is getting is very informative.
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
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.
