adjective
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tending or designed to arouse emotion
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of or characterized by emotion
Usage
Emotional is preferred to emotive when describing a display of emotion: he was given an emotional (not emotive ) welcome
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of emotive
Explanation
Something described as emotive shows feeling. If you consider women more emotive than men, you think that women are more comfortable sharing their feelings than men. While the word emotive is similar to the word emotional, it's important to note that the two aren't interchangeable. Emotive is used with regard to something that makes you have intense feelings rather than just having intense feelings. For example, an emotive conversation will result in getting people's emotions riled up, while an emotional conversation is one in which people go into it with a lot of intense feelings already.
Vocabulary lists containing emotive
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.
While travelling with Wagoner on a tour bus in 1969, Parton wrote Coat of Many Colors, a beautifully emotive tale of how she grew up poor, but rich with love.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
Yet Dean brought a fresh, easy-wearing charm to singles such as the Hot 100 smash “Man I Need,” a Whitney Houston-caliber banger that heralded an artfully emotive record.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
To Mr. Margouleff, “it was more akin to a wind instrument in that you put your total emotive energy into playing one note, or in our case one event, at a time.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
A roar rang out as his band played the opening chords of Night Changes, an emotive song that has become an unofficial tribute track for his bandmate Liam Payne following his death in 2024.
From BBC ● May 23, 2026
Another, Marilyn Hall, earned some college money at an audition in which she sang “Lot’s Wife,” a challenging, highly emotive song from Tony Kushner’s Caroline, or Change.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
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.
