additive
something that is added, as one substance to another, to alter or improve the general quality or to counteract undesirable properties: an additive that thins paint.
Nutrition.
Also called food additive. a substance added directly to food during processing, as for preservation, coloring, or stabilization.
something that becomes part of food or affects it as a result of packaging or processing, as debris or radiation.
characterized or produced by addition; cumulative: an additive process.
Mathematics. (of a function) having the property that the function of the union or sum of two quantities is equal to the sum of the functional values of each quantity; linear.
Origin of additive
1Other words from additive
- ad·di·tive·ly, adverb
- in·ter·ad·di·tive, adjective
- sub·ad·di·tive, adjective
- sub·ad·di·tive·ly, adverb
Words Nearby additive
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use additive in a sentence
You might smell it when roasting malt, barley, and other grains, or as an additive in bread and cakes.
Why autumn air smells so delicious and sweet | Sara Kiley Watson | October 13, 2020 | Popular-ScienceThey’ve placed tailings from exploratory drilling into assorted containers, and are measuring the reaction rates that result from using different chemical additives and processes under different weather conditions.
Asbestos could be a powerful weapon against climate change (you read that right) | James Temple | October 6, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewMore research on possible effects from different additives in these plastics also will be needed, Yue notes.
How to recycle ‘nonrecyclable’ plastics | Kathiann Kowalski | October 2, 2020 | Science News For StudentsSo hot I am guessing there’s a fuel additive in the mix and that additive smells like “guilt.”
A pair of mathematicians has solved the first chunk of one of the most famous conjectures about the additive properties of whole numbers.
Landmark Math Proof Clears Hurdle in Top Erdős Conjecture | Erica Klarreich | August 3, 2020 | Quanta Magazine
Not because I need to feed him, keep him in milk, yogurt, additive-free turkey bologna.
Daddy, How Come You’re Always Broke? Benjamin Anastas’s ‘Too Good to Be True’ | Benjamin Anastas | October 15, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTBPA remains a common additive in both dental fillings and dental sealants, according to the American Dental Association.
Can Children's Dental Fillings Spur Depression? | Florence Williams | July 16, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTConversely, indefinite integrals are indeterminate to the extent of an additive constant.
This valuable additive law, however, cannot be applied in strictness to the amount of ionisation attending the ray.
The Birth-Time of the World and Other Scientific Essays | J. (John) JolyBearing in mind the additive effects of stimulus we see that its effective intensity increases with the duration of application.
Life Movements in Plants, Volume II, 1919 | Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose(d) additive effect on current of response, root-tip a negative, and growing region A positive.
Life Movements in Plants, Volume II, 1919 | Sir Jagadis Chunder BoseThe additive effect of stimulus of light and gravity is seen illustrated in figure 180.
Life Movements in Plants, Volume II, 1919 | Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose
British Dictionary definitions for additive
/ (ˈædɪtɪv) /
characterized or produced by addition; cumulative
any substance added to something to improve it, prevent deterioration, etc
short for food additive
Origin of additive
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for additive
[ ăd′ĭ-tĭv ]
A substance added in small amounts to something else to improve, strengthen, or otherwise alter it. Additives are used for a variety of reasons. They are added to food, for example, to enhance taste or color or to prevent spoilage. They are added to gasoline to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, and to plastics to enhance molding capability.
Relating to the production of color by the mixing of light rays of varying wavelengths.♦ The additive primaries red, green, and blue are those colors whose wavelengths can be mixed in different proportions to produce all other spectral colors. Compare subtractive. See Note at color.
Mathematics Marked by, produced by, or involving addition.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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