multiplicative

American  

[muhl-tuh-pli-key-tiv, muhl-tuh-plik-uh-] / ˈmʌl tə plɪˌkeɪ tɪv, ˌmʌl təˈplɪk ə- /

adjective

1. tending to multiply or increase, or having the power to multiply.

   Smoking and asbestos exposure have a multiplicative effect on your risk of getting lung cancer.

2. Mathematics of or relating to multiplication.

3. relating to or noting a word or affix that indicates multiplication, as triple, threefold, or tri-.

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multiplicative British  

/ ˈmʌltɪplɪˌkeɪtɪv, ˌmʌltɪˈplɪkətɪv /

adjective

1. tending or able to multiply

2. maths involving multiplication

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Other Word Forms

• multiplicatively adverb
• nonmultiplicative adjective
• nonmultiplicatively adverb
• unmultiplicative adjective

Etymology

Origin of multiplicative

First recorded in 1645–55; from Medieval Latin multiplicātīvus; see origin at multiplicate, -ive

Explanation

In math, anything that's described as multiplicative has something to do with repeatedly adding a number to itself. A simple multiplicative problem to solve is 3 X 3. Whenever you multiply one number by another, that's a multiplicative operation. Your math teacher might refer to multiplicative properties of certain numbers, too; "According to the multiplicative property of zero, no matter what number you multiply by zero, you'll always get an answer of zero." Multiplicative shares a Latin root with multiply, multiplex, which means "having many folds."

Example Sentences

Maybe all of these reasons have a multiplicative effect.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 16, 2025

This onslaught of disruption has a multiplicative effect on the bacteria, she added, making it 10 to 1000 times more difficult for them to develop resistance compared to conventional antibiotics.

From Science Daily • Feb. 21, 2024

The special thing about the conjecture is that it combines the additive and multiplicative properties of natural numbers.

From Scientific American • Jul. 28, 2023

Beginning in March 2020 that was changed to additive factors, before switching back to multiplicative models as the large effects of the pandemic on the claims series lessened.

From Reuters • Apr. 6, 2023

Numeral Adjectives are of three kinds, namely, cardinal, ordinal, and multiplicative: each kind running on in a series indefinitely.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold