purposive

[pur-puh-siv]

adjective

1. having, showing, or acting with a purpose, intention, or design.

2. adapted to a purpose or end.

3. serving some purpose.

4. determined; resolute.

5. of or characteristic of purpose.

purposive

/ ˈpɜːpəsɪv /

adjective

1. relating to, having, or indicating conscious intention

2. serving a purpose; useful

Other Word Forms

• purposively adverb
• purposiveness noun
• nonpurposive adjective
• nonpurposively adverb
• nonpurposiveness noun
• prepurposive adjective
• semipurposive adjective
• semipurposively adverb
• semipurposiveness noun
• unpurposive adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of purposive¹

First recorded in 1850–55; purpose + -ive

Example Sentences

Young boys turn cartwheels, women in vivid head-to-toe veils walk purposively past, and donkey carts ferrying water drums trot along dusty dirt roads.

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The Conservative Party had "been through a volcanic period of turmoil" and "has not looked like a party of unified commitment to purposive renewable," Mr Freeman said.

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With her caring but purposively unmoored essays, she has done just this.

Read more on Washington Post

Its founders chose, at the moment of inception, to be intellectually dishonest — which, I would further argue, is in keeping with their purposively constipated "originalist/textualist" approach.

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For them, as we saw in Chapter 9, the argument from design depended on envisaging the universe as manufactured, rather than on showing nature itself to be purposive.

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Related Words

• advantageous 
• appropriate 
• convenient 
• effective 
• favorable 
• fruitful 
• good 
• handy 
• helpful 
• practical 
• pragmatic 
• profitable 
• proper 
• suitable