restrictive

[ri-strik-tiv]

adjective

1. tending or serving to restrict.

2. of the nature of a restriction.

3. expressing or implying restriction or limitation of application, as terms, expressions, etc.

4. Grammar.,  limiting the meaning of a modified element.

   a restrictive adjective.

restrictive

/ rɪˈstrɪktɪv /

adjective

1. restricting or tending to restrict

2. grammar denoting a relative clause or phrase that restricts the number of possible referents of its antecedent. The relative clause in Americans who live in New York is restrictive; the relative clause in Americans, who are generally extrovert , is nonrestrictive

Other Word Forms

• restrictively adverb
• restrictiveness noun
• unrestrictive adjective
• unrestrictively adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of restrictive¹

1375–1425; late Middle English < Middle French restrictif < Latin restrict ( us ) ( restrict ) + Middle French -if -ive

Example Sentences

The statement comes amid the Pentagon’s move to enforce a new unprecedentedly restrictive media policy that paints basic reporting methods as criminal activity.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

They returned to Wicksell’s original interpretation that the financial markets would do a better job than inflation in assessing whether policy was restrictive.

Read more on Barron's

And as the professionals had predicted, that grip definitely feels easier to hold now that I am working with smaller numbers and a more restrictive budget.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Sanctions act as restrictive measures and can be placed on businesses and individuals to achieve specific foreign policy or national security objectives.

Read more on BBC

Even with additional rate cuts, monetary policy would remain mildly restrictive, “which is appropriate for ensuring that inflation resumes its decline once tariff effects filter through the economy,” she said.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• definitive 
• exclusive 
• selective