approbative
- adjective
- /ˈæprəˌbeɪtɪv/
- Formal
:
aprobatorio
- The teacher gave an approbative nod, showing her approval of the student's presentation.
Examples
-
Her approbative remarks during the meeting boosted everyone’s morale.
-
The critic's approbative review encouraged the artist to keep creating.
-
In a brief comment, Clement Greenberg had referred to Newbolt's "unvarying allegiance to a chaste, immitigable, unforgiving modernism," four highly approbative words.
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
18
4.2
Saying good things about someone to show you admire them
14
4.1
Showing praise and happiness for someone's success or good news
5
4.0
Showing strong praise and approval
3
8.1
Showing praise for a person or thing
Showing approval or praise for something
Showing praise for someone or something
Showing approval by saying good things about someone or their work
Showing approval and admiration for someone or their work
Showing that you like and accept someone or something
Showing praise or approval
Being full of praise for someone, often in a formal way
Expressing strong praise, often in formal language
Language that praises someone very much in a formal way
Giving very strong praise in a formal speech or writing
Showing pleasure and praise for someone's success or good news
Antonyms
How Approving
Surface Forms
Morphology
approbative = approbation (transparent) = approbat + ive
The adjective is formed from the noun 'approbation' (or the related verb 'approbate') with the productive adjectival suffix '-ive', so the meaning 'expressing approval' is directly derivable.
Etymology
The word approbative comes from the Latin approbare, made of ad- 'to' and probare 'to test', and it is the same root as the common word approve, so something approbative gives praise or shows approval.