privative
Americanadjective
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causing, or tending to cause, deprivation.
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consisting in or characterized by the taking away, loss, or lack of something.
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Grammar. indicating negation or absence.
noun
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Grammar. a privative element, as a- in asymmetric.
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something that is deprived.
adjective
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causing privation
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expressing lack or negation, as for example the English suffix -less and prefix un-
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obsolete logic (of a proposition) that predicates a logical privation
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of privative
1350–1400; Middle English privatif < Latin prīvātīvus. See private, -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.
But Dr Bhar, a cosmetic surgeon who runs a privative clinic in Harley Street London, disagrees with the ban.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2022
In general perfection is positive, it is an absolute reality; defect is privative, it comes from limitation and tends towards new privations.
From Theodicy Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil by E.M. Huggard
The privative nature of evil, as it is called, is purely a figment of the brain; it is an invention of the schoolmen, which has no corresponding reality in nature.
From A Theodicy, or, Vindication of the Divine Glory by Albert Taylor Bledsoe
But therein they did not venture to condemn the doctrine of the purely privative punishment of children dying without baptism, seeing it approved by the venerable Thomas Aquinas, and by other great men.
From Theodicy Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil by E.M. Huggard
As has been shown in the first chapter, every thought is made up of a positive and a privative, and it is absurd and unnatural to separate the one from the other.
From The Religious Sentiment Its Source and Aim: A Contribution to the Science and Philosophy of Religion by Daniel Garrison Brinton
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.
