resumptive

[ri-zuhmp-tiv]

adjective

1. that summarizes.

   a resumptive statement.

2. that tends to resume or repeat.

   a speech so resumptive that its point was lost.

Other Word Forms

• resumptively adverb
• unresumptive adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of resumptive¹

First recorded in 1850–55; resumpt(ion) + -ive

Example Sentences

Like many of Lucian's compositions, it has what may be termed a retrospective and resumptive value.

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The great epics have attained this resumptive and historical significance only by exhibiting as subject-matter a vast and communal struggle, in which an entire race, an entire nation, an entire organized religion has been concerned,—a struggle imagined as so vast that it has shaken heaven as well as earth and called to conflict not only men but also gods.

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The great epics have attained this resumptive and historical significance only by exhibiting as subject-matter a vast and communal struggle, in which an entire race, an entire nation, an entire organized religion has been concerned,––a struggle imagined as so vast that it has shaken heaven as well as earth and called to conflict not only men but also gods.

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Some have seen in these words, "Return, return," an indication of the rapture of the Church; and explain some parts of the subsequent context, which appear inconsistent with this view, as resumptive rather than progressive.

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Mr. Thomas has been skilfully resumptive of a passing period of popular thought; but Mr. Kennedy has been resumptive on a larger scale, and has built his play upon the wisdom of the centuries.

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