adjective
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relating to, having, or indicating conscious intention
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serving a purpose; useful
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of purposive
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.
His subsequent efforts were as varied, if more grimly purposive, as the death-obsessed male protagonist’s stagings in “Harold and Maude,” or Bill Murray as Phil Connors, trying to escape the time loop in “Groundhog Day.”
From New York Times • Mar. 26, 2023
Policy is also purposive, or intended to do something; that is, policymaking is not random.
From Textbooks • Jul. 28, 2021
And her word choice with respect to the handful of claims she did rescind was purposive: It was unfailingly the media that was to blame.
From Slate • Feb. 5, 2021
If there is any hope for a better world, it lies in the daily effort to expand the circle of those we believe should be treated as full, purposive and dignified human beings.
From Washington Post • Aug. 1, 2019
Aristotle thought about the natural world in exactly the same way: that is to say, he saw it as the product of rational, purposive activity.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
