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

Spending the next 10 years lamenting Madigan’s potential snub would be nothing more than reductive, implying that her work is only worthy if it’s awarded by stuffy voters who maintain little respect for horror, anyway.

Read more on Salon

“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.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

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.

Read more on Salon

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

Read more on Los Angeles Times

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.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

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