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Synonyms

preceptive

American  
[pri-sep-tiv] / prɪˈsɛp tɪv /

adjective

  1. of the nature of or expressing a precept; mandatory.

  2. giving instructions; instructive.


preceptive British  
/ prɪˈsɛptɪv /

adjective

  1. of, resembling, or expressing a precept or precepts

  2. didactic

"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

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of preceptive

First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English word from Latin word praeceptīvus. See precept, -ive


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.

See Examples For:

Neither grammar then, nor rhetoric, nor any kind of misguided preceptive teaching should be allowed to introduce into the school the menace of realism which lurks naturally in the shadow of all prescriptive systems.

From The Reform of Education by Giovanni Gentile

All will depend on the character of the law, whether it is penal or preceptive, and if preceptive, whether it obliges in virtue of legal or of commutative justice.

From Moral Theology A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities by Charles Jerome Callan

An instruction of the Holy Office of 1866 required that the guilty party in a case of solicitation should confess, but the instruction was directive rather than preceptive.

From Moral Theology A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities by Charles Jerome Callan

But, moreover, all such providential magistrates are also preceptive.

From Act, Declaration, & Testimony for the Whole of our Covenanted Reformation, as Attained to, and Established in Britain and Ireland; Particularly Betwixt the Years 1638 and 1649, Inclusive by The Reformed Presbytery

Justice should be done, by a civil power—agreeable to God's preceptive will.

From The Ordinance of Covenanting by John Cunningham

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