reductive

[ri-duhk-tiv]

adjective

1. of or relating to reduction; serving to reduce or abridge.

   an urgent need for reductive measures.

2. of or relating to change from one form to another.

   reductive chemical processes.

3. employing an analysis of a complex subject into a simplified, less detailed form; of, pertaining to, or employing reductionism; reductionistic.

noun

1. something causing or inducing a reductive process.

Other Word Forms

• reductively adverb
• reductiveness noun
• antireductive adjective
• nonreductive adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of reductive¹

First recorded in 1625–35; reduct(ion) + -ive

Example Sentences

“But right now, I’m more excited to be talking about ‘Poetic License’ and anything would be reductive to the conversation to talk about it in this context.

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Hegseth’s reductive view of gender is so over-the-top it’s hard to believe an adult human being wrote it — and it’s not just the literal fact that not all women are mothers.

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What if the characters who people reductively call monsters actually love each other but are not incentivized to express it, so they can’t?

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Calling it a picture of the American dream would be reductive, diminishing all of the work that Escola has done to apply it to an outmoded path toward prosperity.

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But to that reductive objection, Belflower has a polite retort: “OK, but look at the history.”

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Related Words

• diminishing www.thesaurus.com
• diminutive 
• minimal 
• subtractive