performative

[ per-fawr-muh-tiv ]

/ pərˈfɔr mə tɪv /

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adjective

Philosophy, Linguistics. (of an expression or statement) performing an act by the very fact of being uttered, as with the expression “I promise,” that performs the act of promising.Compare constative (def. 1).

relating to the performance of behaviors associated with a particular social role or identity: He reflects on his mother's performative femininity, remembering the times he witnessed her adorning herself with eyeshadow, bracelets, and belts.

relating to ways of behaving that exhibit a socially acceptable belief, trait, or quality, often making a superficial impression: Performative wokeness enables privileged people to reap the social benefits of wokeness without actually undertaking the necessary legwork to combat inequality.

noun

a performative utterance. Compare constative (def. 2). See also speech act.

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Origin of performative

First recorded in 1950–55; perform + -ative

Words nearby performative

performance bond, performance capture, performance-enhancing, performance indicator, performance test, performative, performing, performing arts, perf. part., perfume, perfumer

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

How to use performative in a sentence

Conversations get more quickly to the essence, feel less performative and ritualized.
Transformed by crisis, arts criticism may never be the same. And that’s a good thing.|Philip Kennicott|November 29, 2020|Washington Post
McIntyre stressed that it’s important to recognize allyship as “a behavior” and “something we work on every day” in the workplace, rather than “something performative” that people can claim to support without the actions to back it up.
Corporate leaders strive to make allyship a real thing at work|reymashayekhi|September 24, 2020|Fortune
This demonstrates that much of Facebook’s work in this area is performative, rather than effective.
Facebook tries to clean up Groups with new policies|Sarah Perez|September 17, 2020|TechCrunch
Though I’m not a comedian or an actor or a musician, I gain a lot of wisdom from the conversations he has with entertainers and am able to relate it to the performative aspects of my work.
Podcast recommendations for a better life and career from Fortune’s 40 under 40|Aric Jenkins|September 5, 2020|Fortune

At worst, they’re performative oversimplifications of what makes a successful e-commerce business.
Disruption, served one thread at a time: The weird world of DTC thoughtleader Twitter (1/23)|Anna Hensel|August 7, 2020|Digiday
George and his brother Richard are the founders of Major League Eating, but George is the performative half of the duo.
How to Stomach a Hot Dog Eating Contest|Robert Silverman|July 5, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It was a technical and performative dance and everyone needed to be on time and in time.
Lupita Nyong’o On Her Magical Journey from Kenya to ‘12 Years A Slave’ and Possible Oscar Glory|Marlow Stern|February 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
This, you could say, is the tension at the heart of much of the West's performative art.
Maurice Ravel, Brilliantly Un-Raveled|Blake Gopnik|June 4, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Those are the only moments that are really performative, where someone else can enter your world….
20 Views of Life and Death|Ezrha Jean Black|July 22, 2011|DAILY BEAST

British Dictionary definitions for performative

performative

/ (pəˈfɔːmətɪv) /

adjective linguistics philosophy

denoting an utterance that constitutes some act, esp the act described by the verb. For example, I confess that I was there is itself a confession, and so is performative in the narrower sense, while I'd like you to meet … (effecting an introduction) is performative only in the looser senseSee also locutionary act, illocution, perlocution
(as noun)that sentence is a performative

denoting a verb that may be used as the main verb in such an utterance
(as noun)``promise'' is a performative

Derived forms of performative

performatively, adverb

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