stipulative

American  

[stip-yoo-luht-iv, stip-yoo-layt-iv] / ˈstɪp yʊ lət ɪv, ˈstɪp yʊˌleɪt ɪv /

adjective

1. (of a definition, explanation, etc.) set forth by a writer or speaker applying it to a term or concept they intend to use in a different way than usual.

2. having the nature of or involving a stipulation.

---

Other Word Forms

• non-stipulative adjective

Example Sentences

To say this is to engage in what logicians refer to as “stipulative definition” — the attempt to settle an argument by defining it out of existence.

From Salon

Scientifically, the term is “fuzzy,” having only a vague and stipulative meaning.

From New York Times

Dr. Collins, physician to the Czar in 1670, as an evidence of the progress of civilization in Russia, says that the custom of tying up wives by the hair of the head and flogging them 'begins to be left off;' accounting for it, however, by the prudence of parents, who made a stipulative provision in the marriage contract that their daughters were not to be whipped, struck, kicked, &c.

From Project Gutenberg

Equitable Life Assurance Society refused to pay double indemnity on Gibbs's $2,500 policy because of a stipulative clause that death in a "submarine or aeronautical expedition" did not call for double payment.

From Time Magazine Archive