Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🔤 Makes adjectives 👤 Makes nouns
-ive

-ive

8.8
A word ending added to adjectives to make nouns for a person or thing with that quality
  • other
  • Specialized
translation icon : -ivo
  • In 'detective', the suffix -ive forms a noun for someone who investigates crimes.

Examples

  • The word 'representative' uses the suffix -ive to indicate a person who represents others.

  • An additive enhances the flavor of food.

  • Adding -ive to 'act' creates 'active', and to 'execute' creates 'executive'.

  • The detective solved the case.

  • The suffix -ive in 'destructive' indicates a person or thing characterized by causing destruction.

  • Using the suffix -ive in 'creative' forms a noun that describes a person with the quality of creativity.

  • The word 'reactive' includes the suffix -ive to denote a person or thing that responds to stimuli.

Surface Forms

-ive main

Etymology

The word -ive also comes from the Latin ending -ivus and can turn an adjective into a noun that means 'a person or thing that does' something. This is clear in representative and detective, where -ive helps make a word for 'a person who' represents or investigates.